So much to say, but so little time. Vienna was wonderful. Met Anna and her dad in Prague and we saw Don Giovanni. I love opera. My music theroy learning begins soon.

Met zack in Munich. Spent the first night with a bunch of opas in a beer garden, drinking and laughing.

Now we are in Bamberg. We were told that there was NO WHERE to stay, but we found a room in a 4 star hotel. We drank red wine on the roof terrace as the sun set. Then went into town for the HUGE FESTIVAL that is going on and drunk our liters of beer out of gorgeous mugs as we sang and danced to queen, acdc and bin jovi covers with 500 to 1000 germans. We are drinking more beer and then goign back. We had no idea where or in which city we would be sleeping this morning.

Life is so beautiful and there is so much to tell

Love love love love love to you all

Me

ps

I forgot...I dotn know if I have typed this anywhere, but Sandro gave me a cell phone to use while I was in Rome, so I could wander as I pleased while he was at Work. Anyways, one day while he was in a rehearsal I got a phone call from him, and he kept his phone on in the rehearsal so I could wander Rome listening to the Opera Theatre of Rome(which was the most attended theatre in Europe 2 years ago, thank you very much) chorus rehearse Paglicaelli. AND, Frank, who is the small(being fits in the palm of my hand) curly haired purple stuffed duck that I have been travelling with(who incidently also comes to work with me almost everyday) was on stage, in Sandro´s pocket at the opera during Paglicalli, which therefore makes him an international opera duck. Pretty awesome, I know.

Just thought Id share that.

It is so hard to meet beautiful people and say goodbye to them after so short a time.

Love love love love love to you all
Dani

Rome and Venice and Vienna

I cant believe I havent blogged in so long. That s little bit crazy and I dont know how Im going to catch up. This may need to become point form. I had wonderful experiences. I lived with Sandro for 3 days...it always helps when the person you are staying with that is showing you the city studied Roman history and speaks Latin. Everytime we went out I was learning something. He leant me a cell phone while I was there, and when he would go to work at night(at the opera) I would wander around rome. That city doesnt sleep, it is fabulous. One night I walked along the river, where there was a market of sorts, with music and stands, and people tangoing and drinking and laughing. There was one main square with steps where alot of young people would go to drink beer and wine and play guitars and drums and sing. I loved it. I went to venice, where someone I met in Paris met me. I was heart broken to leave rome and after one night changed my ticket and decided to go back to Rome. Venice was nice, small and a massive tourist zone. I didnt see a car for about 48 hours, which was bizarre, although its a bit unnerving that it was so bizarre to me. So, I went back to Rome to see Sandro Returning to Rome was very happy, I learned to Salsa dance, and then Salsa danced iwth Sandro in the street with friends at about 230am, we went to see a video of an Opera from teh Salzburg festival in a park in Rome, which was AMAZING, fell asleep in the same park earlier that day. I went to the Villa Bourghese which is this crazy art gallery in the middle of the park. You need to reserve to get in and you can only be in it for 2 hours. It is all a private collection of the Bourghese family and is very ecletic, but beautiful. The rooms themselves were designed by famous artists for the art that was in them. I saw some GORGEOUS Bernini statues. Sandro also got me a ticket to see Paglicelli, at the same outdoor ruins, which is where he works. It was also the ballet of Romeo and Juliet by Profkieov. The production value and costumes and music and everything we AMAZING. After the opera there was a bit of a potluck afterparty backstage which I got to go to, so the Opera Theatre of Rome fed me dinner and wine. The atmosphere was beautiful, theatre people are a lovely family all over the world. Early in the day we went on a bit of a tour of paintings by the artist Carvaggio in churches with Sandro´s friend Arelaus, and a girl from Germany, name dMaria, who I might see if Zack(my best friend of 8 years from Vancouver, who I am meeting in Munich very soon) and I go to Berlin.
Leaving Rome was very difficult and involved a lot of tears, but that is what happens. Travelling is wonderful, but it is hard to meet beautiful people all over europe and leave a bit of your heart with them. Saying goodbye or see you later can be very hard to do.
I am feeling very calm today, a wave of change seems to have come over me. Maybe my body and spirit know that this adventure is starting to come to an end, and know that my adreneline can start to unwind. Its a bizarre feeling...maybe Dani Fecko is just calming down...but thats not very likely, is it :P

Anyways, off to see Vienna,
Love love love love love to you all. Hugs for each of you.

Love
Dani

Vroom, Vroom, Ciao!

The Romans are so relaxed that it stresses me out.

It seems that everything here is simply a suggestion. "The light is red, stop if you feel like it, but really, its cool if you dont, just dont kill yourself or others" "What are these strange lines on the Road, its as though someone was suggesting that there should be some sort of order when we drive.Thats funny. O well, Ill jsut continue to ignore them" "The starting time of the show is listed as 9pm. So....if you show up at 9:05pm you can join the hoards of other people that are still buying their tickets, and then you can go into the theatre and chill out. We will start around 930, maybe, and just ignore all of the people that are getting up and walking around during the show. Intermission...itll be as long as it needs to be, just chill out, hang out, you know, whatever"

My god, I am too North American for that!

Yesterday I lined up for the full on Vatican, last time it was just the Sistine Chapel. I waited in line for 2 hours, but started chatting to two american sisters who I got along with fabulously. We spent the entire day together, and then I went for Ice cream with them and their parents afterwards. Also, while I was in line a girl in front of me turned around and said " Are you Zack Singer's Friend?"(which i am...in fact we are meeting in Munich at the end of the month). To which I responded "WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?" It was Simone, a friend of Zack's that I met at the Blarney Stone sometime last year. How crazy is that! O Rome.
Last night I cooked pasta for Mattia, the civil engineer I was staying with. Cooking Pasta for an Italian is a very scary experience. Today I am moving to couch surf with Alessandro the opera singer for a few days before its off the Venice. I am sure Florence is beautiful, but Im glad Ive stayed in Rome, I wasnt quite done here yet.
Mattia and I went to see A midsummer night's dream at the italian version of the Globe. It was absolutely beautiful. There were cages with birds on stage, that has little gorgeous lights with dimmers in them. The birds just chirped and chirped and chirped, and those costumes....my god. The images were stunning.

Alright, off to the pantheon.

love love love love love to you all.
Dani

Hate me now or Hate me Later, part 2

So, when we got to where the house party was at about 1 am, we saw the cops leave, so needless to say, things had calmed down. We hung out chatting and then 7 of us decided to go to the beach, around 230am. This was Sandro, the opera singer, Mattia, the civil Engineer Im staying with(who is cooking again right now), Peggy, a French dresser/make up artist, Jessica, an Italian play translater, and two other guys that work in the opera. We got to the beach and there were tons of people, an outdoor club that we sat near so we could borrow their music. The boys and I played soccer near the beach. Then, as we were getting too hot, we got into our undies and ran into the water at about 330 in the morning. There is nothing like being in the Med at 330 in the morning in your underwear, under the moon. The water was wonderful, but getting out, not so good. After some wine and beer on the beach, we went for another swim, all of us this time, and then at about 530 went for cappacino and crossiants as the sun rose. We chatted for a while there and at 7am we ended up back at home. Im going to the Pantheon today and we are going to Midsummer Night's Dream tonight. I have decided to skip Florence, and stay in Rome until Friday. There is still so much to see, and this way Ill see one city relatively well as opposed to two citys half heartedly. Ive also made some wonderful friends that Im not quite ready to leave yet.

Well, thats it for now its break lunch time.

Love love love love love to you all
Dani

Hate me now or Hate me Later

Its 2 minutes past midnight. Im listening to afro cuban music and drinking red wine. In Italy. Having just finished an amazing meal of Veal and some sort of leafy green and pork sausage cooked for me by an Italian civial Engineer. I spent my day at The Vatican. After I did a tour of the museum one of the guards quizzed me and after I did well he snuck me up the Dome of the Basillica, I got up there for free and passed about 45 minutes worth of line. Then I met the Italian opera singer that had taken me around Rome on his scooter the day before (I also got a free ticket to see him in Turnadot set amidst Ancient Roman Ruins, with a cast and crew of about 140. Bard on the Beach eat your heart out). Today he took me to the main opera theatre of Rome, where he works, and snuck me into the building so I got to see the theatre and backstage and the stage. I accidently deleted all of my pictures from Paris and Barcelona today, in the Vatican. But I didnt care. I had just gone into a small chapel in the Bascilla and prayed, and for the first time that I remember managed to have my mind completely blank and managed to meditate and just be and not care about anything but where I was. It was amazing. Tonight I am going to a house party with a bunch of opera singers and tomorrow I will probably see a midsummer night's dream in Italian.

My life is a crazy and wonderful dream that I cant believe is real and I cant believe that is mine. I am so blessed and so lucky, and the crazy thing is my life is just starting, Im still a baby and this is all just starting.

Love love love love love to you all.

Dani

It Figures, and when in Rome.

Ok, a brief overview. In the last few days I have gone on a Gaudi tour of Barcelona, gone to see a rehearsal of a Spanish musical Adaption of The Legend of Frankenstien with a Hungarian guy who sold me a ring at a street market - where I got fed Champagne and strawberry ice cream and was made to feel very mcuh a part of a beautiful Spanish Theatre family, and then also heard the director sing Mary Poppins songs in Spanish, then stayed out until 4am chatting. I went to the Dali Museum in Figures, which is about an hour and a half out of Barcelona, and it amazing, Dali himself designed it and its a wonderful trippy fabulous place - sort of like a home to me, it is call the Dali Theatre Museum and is designed so that you get lost. Then my friend and I missed the last train and waited at an outdoor bus station from 9pm until 6am, but went to a bar for a bit too and talked to a drunk German woman who was convinced she knew what was best for us.
O, and in Barcelona, a man that I had a conversation in Broken French with on a metro invited me into his family,s home if I needed a place to sleep or a meal to eat.
Then I took a hotel train to Milan. I was in a sleeper car with 3 older ladies who high fived me when we lifted up our luggage. I got on the train at about 8, and by 830 was in the bar car sipping Spanish red wine as I watched the sun set over the spanish country side that I was whizzing by. In Milan, where I was for about an hour and I ran into the Korean guy was sitting next to on the train into Barcelona. The woman I sat next to on the train into Rome kept on buying me tea and coffee and cookies and offering to buy me sandwiches. When I got to rome, I wandered a bit, then met up with my host, who gave me a clean towel, and then after I showered I got whisked around Rome via scooter and Giorgio would stop and explain the architecture of the buildings to me, and took me for Italian dinner of Pasta, eggplant and red wine at an outdoor resturant and then for Ice Cream a little while later. The Colloseum at night is amazing. Today I am on my way to see it in the day light and then meeting up with my other host. Tonight I have a ticket(that someone got for me, someone that couldnt host me here, but that is in the opera) for Turnadot outside inbetween circus maximus and the Colloseum. I also just played hide and seek behind my notebook with a little british girl as I waited to put my luggage in a locker at the train station. She blew me kisses as she went away.
This continent is full of love.

Love love love love love to you all
Dani