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I got startled this morning when I realized how far into March I was and I haven’t started on this post. I also thought I forgot the post for February, but I hadn’t. Anyway, onto the post!
Italy Trip
I was very lucky to have been invited on a week long trip to Italy by my friends family. It was so much fun and such a good time, and an experience I’ll always remember and gush over. I was super nervous going into it (that’s the kind of person I am anyway, I worry about anything and everything I can) because this was my first time going out of the country. It was going to be a long flight, a lot of walking, having to deal with getting a passport and going through customs. But, like most times, everything ended up turning out great.
Since it was the first time I was going out of the US, I had to get my passport. Anytime I have to deal with some identification process or doing anything with the government I get nervous. Not because I’ve done anything wrong really, it’s just bad anxiety for whatever reason. Although, one of my friends misspelled his name on his passport. I was a little nervous about that so I checked mine 100 times and had other people read it too. It was a super simple process though. I setup an appointment online, went to a local post office, paid the man, had my picture taken, signed a form and waited a few weeks. That was a huge weight off my shoulders when I got it.
I was really worried about the long flight and all the walking and how my back was going to handle it. I did alright. It was about 7 hours from RDU (Raleigh, NC) to CDG (Paris), and my back only started bothering me about 6 hours into the flight, but it was manageable. Then we went from CDG to FCO (Rome) which was about 2 hours and that was easy, I was really tired by that point so I slept for a little while.
Actually getting into the EU was way easier than what I was expecting. We got off the plane walked where we were told by these really clear signs, got my passport scanned and my picture taken and I was good. I was expecting paperwork I had to fill out, some questions and just a hassle, but it was incredibly chill. That happened in France. Unfortunately with our layovers being so short we didn’t get to step out in France, and where we flew we didn’t get to see the Eiffel Tower or anything cool. The airport was super beautiful though.
The actual walking wasn’t too bad. I got some Topo hiking boots/shoes that I wear and they helped out a ton. I did have some issues with my calves about halfway through the trip that wouldn’t shake even in the morning. But I went into the ocean at one point for a full body dip and that pretty much fixed them. The water was incredibly cold, but it felt so nice and fixed all the soreness on my body. I guess cold plunges do work lol.
The food we had was all so damn good. The food was insanely delicious, the portions were pretty big, and I didn’t have a single meal that I didn’t like. It was all so cheap too, the most expensive thing I think we bought was a pizza for like 20 euros, but it was from the 2nd best pizza place in the world. We spent 5 euros on a pizza that put Little Caesars to shame. The pasta was delicious too, I had gnocchi for the first time at this really small restaurant in Tropea and I’ve been meaning to buy some to fix at home. The desserts were sweet, but they didn’t taste artificial like you might find here. We had like 7 or 8 different tiramisu dishes.
The sights and history there was insane too, I have so many good pictures. We stayed in Rome for a day or 2, then we were in Naples for 2 days, and then we stayed the rest of the time in Tropea. Overall I just had an amazing time and I would love to go back again some day.
New Server
I’ve had a homelab for a while to run things like Plex on for my sisters, but I’m in the process of rebuilding it. The computer is almost literally 10 years old and it was already a little under-powered when it was first built, so it’s been overdue for a few years. I bought the parts for it back around black friday, but only recently had the time to be able to do anything with them. It sucks though cuz I’m 90% sure I got a broken motherboard, so I’ve got another one coming in the mail in the next day or 2.
I’m writing this because the vps this server is running on might change. I host a few sites on here, but I pay a little bit too much out of pocket for it and plan to move some of the services to my homelab in proxmox containers. This web server and my email server (which has been down for months and months now) will still probably be better suited on server that isn’t in my house, so I’ll be looking for alternative hosting. I’m tinkering with the idea of hosting this site (since it’s written with hugo) on github, and then maybe paying someone like protonmail to use my domain with their clients and services. Still thinking though. But, that’s to say that this site might have some downtime in the future.
That’s all I’m going to write about for this month, it’s getting close to the end and I’m not sure if I’ll have time to come back later and finish anything I start. I still need to come back and write up some stuff about what’s been going on with One Piece, cuz it’s been crazy. Thanks for reading!