For those of you that don't know, Brett and I decided to come home about 3 weeks early from our trip. This morning, we hopped on a flight in Brussels and flew home. We've been home for about 3 hours, and the dog peed herself before we even touched her.
It's very very surreal to be home, in a place that is familiar, yet totally alien. I didn't start to realize how long even 2 months is to be away from home, and how profoundly happy I would be to be back on US soil. It's great to be back at home with the dog in our house, but there are so many things different about the house - every picture save two in the upstairs hall have been taken down, for example - that it is really difficult to feel at home, even here, in our home. Things are still in flux with Kelly moving out, us coming back early unexpectedly, and the backyard being re-done, but I'm sure I will slowly settle back in here.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Saturday, August 11, 2007
8/11/07 - Paris
After breakfast we headed straight to the musee d'orsay, where we spent the next 2-3 hours. It's my favorite museum I've ever been in. I especially loved the Renoirs, Van Goghs (like l'eglise d'anvers, which I'd never seen and now love), Monets of course, Dhurmer's pastels, and all the marble sculptures they have. Wow.
Then we went to the catacombs, filled to the brim with stacked humans. They even have a heart-shape in skulls! The number of people down there is staggering!
Then we went to the catacombs, filled to the brim with stacked humans. They even have a heart-shape in skulls! The number of people down there is staggering!
8/10/07 - Paris
We got up for breakfast, then walked up to Sacre Coeur, which is just up the hill from where we're staying in Montmartre. The basilique is very beautiful, much more so than Notre Dame, which only has the rose window and flying buttresses going for it. Sacre Coeur is more moorish, plus it has pretty grounds and a fantastic view of the city.
Then we got our tickets for the Musee D'Orsay for tomorrow so that we don't have to stand in line, then went to the Arc de Triomphe and went up top for another spectacular view of Paris.
Then we met up with Aurelien and Sylvain, friends who live in Paris. They took us to Chez Papa for lunch, where we gorged ourselves on 'salades.' By this I mean lettuce, huge chunks of strong cheese, potatoes, tomatoes, two fried eggs, some pancetta, and god knows what else. It was sooo good. After lunch we went to a patisserie for 'religieuse' which are snowman-shaped pastries filled with chocolate eclair filling and iced with cream cheese frosting. It was really great to see the two of them, and especially for Brett to meet them.
After all that food, we took a walk to settle things, then a nap. Got up and went to the Eiffel Tower where we hung out, gaped, and people watched. I love Paris.
Then we got our tickets for the Musee D'Orsay for tomorrow so that we don't have to stand in line, then went to the Arc de Triomphe and went up top for another spectacular view of Paris.
Then we met up with Aurelien and Sylvain, friends who live in Paris. They took us to Chez Papa for lunch, where we gorged ourselves on 'salades.' By this I mean lettuce, huge chunks of strong cheese, potatoes, tomatoes, two fried eggs, some pancetta, and god knows what else. It was sooo good. After lunch we went to a patisserie for 'religieuse' which are snowman-shaped pastries filled with chocolate eclair filling and iced with cream cheese frosting. It was really great to see the two of them, and especially for Brett to meet them.
After all that food, we took a walk to settle things, then a nap. Got up and went to the Eiffel Tower where we hung out, gaped, and people watched. I love Paris.
8/9/07 - travel day!
We started off the longest bus trip in the circuit with 'spider pig' from thhe Simpsons movie playing, courtesy of our guide Grant from Croatia, who's back doing bus guiding for a while. Watched LA Confidential and the Da Vinci Code (horrible!) as well as some highlights of X-factor and Kath & Kim. I hadn't even heard of X-Factor before and I've now seen more of it than I've seen of American Idol. Kath & Kim is this Aussie show about a mother and daughter. They're like Aussie trailer trash, but REALLY trailer trash. It's entertaining the way a car wreck is entertaining, but it helps the time pass. I actually have a sort of shameful affinity for this show.
Anyway, got to Paris - yay! So glad to be back here!
Anyway, got to Paris - yay! So glad to be back here!
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
new pic warning!!
Forgot to mention also that there are pics from Cinque Terre and Lauterbrunnen up at wwww.flickr.com/photos/brettgphoto which mean as of right now we're all caught up.
8/8/07 - Munich
Happy birthday daddy!!!
Today Brett got up feeling about 10000000 times better, so we grabbed ourselves a Wombat's all you can eat breakfast and made the most of things. We're still taking it easy. I feel pretty much full strength, but Brett is still in the recovery stage, and it's raining anyway. I guess we'll go to Dachau on Munich round 3 in a few weeks.
Tomorrow we leave for Paris, where it is supposed to rain as well. We're just going to buy umbrellas and get our Musee D'Orsay tickets the day before (which we discovered you can do. It's a completely different booth, so you never have to stand in line) and do things our own way. At least we're staying at a decent place this time.
After that it's 6 nights in Bruges, ending with Brett's birthday on the 17th. Then 3 days in Amsterdam, 3 days in Berlin, 7 nights in Prague, 3 nights in Vienna, and then the last 3 nights of the trip back here in Munich. Tomorrow is exactly 4 weeks till our return!
Because we've been very ill and such, Brett and I were feeling really homesick for the last few days, but we're starting to feel much better. We're both very excited to come home to all of our comforts and familiar things, but we are also very excited about the rest of the trip.
Today Brett got up feeling about 10000000 times better, so we grabbed ourselves a Wombat's all you can eat breakfast and made the most of things. We're still taking it easy. I feel pretty much full strength, but Brett is still in the recovery stage, and it's raining anyway. I guess we'll go to Dachau on Munich round 3 in a few weeks.
Tomorrow we leave for Paris, where it is supposed to rain as well. We're just going to buy umbrellas and get our Musee D'Orsay tickets the day before (which we discovered you can do. It's a completely different booth, so you never have to stand in line) and do things our own way. At least we're staying at a decent place this time.
After that it's 6 nights in Bruges, ending with Brett's birthday on the 17th. Then 3 days in Amsterdam, 3 days in Berlin, 7 nights in Prague, 3 nights in Vienna, and then the last 3 nights of the trip back here in Munich. Tomorrow is exactly 4 weeks till our return!
Because we've been very ill and such, Brett and I were feeling really homesick for the last few days, but we're starting to feel much better. We're both very excited to come home to all of our comforts and familiar things, but we are also very excited about the rest of the trip.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
8/7/07 - Munich
Brett is really a trooper, because despite barely sleeping and feeling like two day-old shit, he still wanted to go to the Deutches Museum. So we walked there and paid our 8,50 euro, only to discover that all these complex things were only explained in German! I had been afraid of this, but had foolishly assumed that the guidebook or any of the half-dozen people who recommended the museum would have mentioned the lack of english. After 15 minutes we were frustrated and Brett felt terrible, so we just left and headed back.
After a while, I decided to go get Brett some food from the grocery store. After having gotten directions, I headed out into the Munich afternoon. As I left the hostel, I thought, "Maybe it's not a good idea to go out here by myself" and like magic, this group of 6 guys appeared, hogging all the sidewalk. As we walked toward each other, I veered to the edge to try and squeeze by, and as I turned sideways to get between two of them, the one at my front side deliberately swerved into me so that he could feel me up. Gross. Then I got a catcall from one of the ubiquitious shady international call places. I was in a shitty mood when I got to the grocery store, which only got worse when I discovered that this city HAS NO SALTINE CRACKERS!!! OR PEANUT BUTTER!! blasphemy. I grouchily went to check out, but my mood lifted a bit when the cute checkout clerk winked and smiled at me as he handed me my change. Then, four steps out the door, a bulldog trotted by, happy as can be. It was as if the bulldog universe was telling me, and through me, Brett, that things weren't so bad as they seemed, and to just turn that frown upside down. Even the rain that started on my way back and the repeated Arabic catcall couldn't bring me down.
Anyway, we ate some crackers and very crunchy peaches and then read in bed for a while. I've started in on 1984, which I horribly haven't read and someone should revoke my degree over, and Brett is now reading the David Sedaris and howling with laughter. There's quite the thunderstorm, with flashes of lightning and loud thunderclaps and lots of rain, but it's nice to sit inside and listen to rain drum on the atrium roof while reading.
After a while, I decided to go get Brett some food from the grocery store. After having gotten directions, I headed out into the Munich afternoon. As I left the hostel, I thought, "Maybe it's not a good idea to go out here by myself" and like magic, this group of 6 guys appeared, hogging all the sidewalk. As we walked toward each other, I veered to the edge to try and squeeze by, and as I turned sideways to get between two of them, the one at my front side deliberately swerved into me so that he could feel me up. Gross. Then I got a catcall from one of the ubiquitious shady international call places. I was in a shitty mood when I got to the grocery store, which only got worse when I discovered that this city HAS NO SALTINE CRACKERS!!! OR PEANUT BUTTER!! blasphemy. I grouchily went to check out, but my mood lifted a bit when the cute checkout clerk winked and smiled at me as he handed me my change. Then, four steps out the door, a bulldog trotted by, happy as can be. It was as if the bulldog universe was telling me, and through me, Brett, that things weren't so bad as they seemed, and to just turn that frown upside down. Even the rain that started on my way back and the repeated Arabic catcall couldn't bring me down.
Anyway, we ate some crackers and very crunchy peaches and then read in bed for a while. I've started in on 1984, which I horribly haven't read and someone should revoke my degree over, and Brett is now reading the David Sedaris and howling with laughter. There's quite the thunderstorm, with flashes of lightning and loud thunderclaps and lots of rain, but it's nice to sit inside and listen to rain drum on the atrium roof while reading.
8/6/07 - Travel day
Despite my trepidation, I felt somewhat decent this morning, managing to sleep through the night, eat a croissant, and talk to Josh for half an hour without puking, which was an improvement. I still had a vicious headache and various other complaints, but by sleeping through most of the trip and nearly finishing the Da Vinci Code, I got to Munich without mishap.
After getting settled in, I finished Da Vinci Code and we went to Hugendubel for more reading materials. No more Clive Cussler or Dan Brown for me, thank god. Those were products of desperate times with no options.
We tried to go back to the Paulaner garden, but it was packed and I felt dizzy and shitty, so we adjourned to the pizza place near our hostel. Halfway through his first burned hawaiian slice, though, Brett abruptly announced he didn't feel well, so we went back to the hostel. It quickly became clear that he'd caught my virus, and he passed what certainly sounded like an awful night. At least the bathroom is ensuite.
After getting settled in, I finished Da Vinci Code and we went to Hugendubel for more reading materials. No more Clive Cussler or Dan Brown for me, thank god. Those were products of desperate times with no options.
We tried to go back to the Paulaner garden, but it was packed and I felt dizzy and shitty, so we adjourned to the pizza place near our hostel. Halfway through his first burned hawaiian slice, though, Brett abruptly announced he didn't feel well, so we went back to the hostel. It quickly became clear that he'd caught my virus, and he passed what certainly sounded like an awful night. At least the bathroom is ensuite.
8/5/07 - Lauterbrunnen
Last night I woke up and began puking from about 3am on. This is a shitty enough situation under any circumstances, but throw in being in a foreign country, cold, in the middle of the night, and have the communal bathrooms be a good two minutes' walk away, and you have a recipe for disaster for the nauseous Liz. I literally split my time all day between lying in one position dozing and reading the Da Vinci Code, and being in the bathroom. It was awful, I had a splitting headache that felt like the insides of my head were swiveling independently of the outsides, and my whole body ached from puking. I managed to keep some broth down around dinnertime.
Brett was so supportive and helpful. He didn't even complain when he made me broth and noodles in the morning and I only ate a spoonful. A true saint, as far as I'm concerned.
Brett was so supportive and helpful. He didn't even complain when he made me broth and noodles in the morning and I only ate a spoonful. A true saint, as far as I'm concerned.
8/4/07 - Lauterbrunnen
I woke up to yet another bad Aussie impression. Admittedly, this person was on Contiki, so it's no surprise, but I swear I've gotten enough of Aussies for the rest of my days. I could go on for considerable lengths of time about how the Aussies I've met more closely fit the mold of ignorant American than many Americans, or at least the ones I consider to be worthwhile.
Anyway. Despite feeling increasingly like I had a cold, I managed to drag my sorry ass to Trummelbach Falls without even too much complaint. As if to spite my headache, fever, chills, and ever-more-raw throat, I traipsed semi-gamely through cave after cave and staircase after staircase in this massive waterfall that single-handedly drains the runoff from 3 massive glaciers. Over 20,000 liters of water gush out PER SECOND. The thing is deafening, chilly, wet, and almost entirely viewed from within the caves that house it. I spent the rest of the day lying down and trying not to be sick, unsuccessfully, as it turns out.
Anyway. Despite feeling increasingly like I had a cold, I managed to drag my sorry ass to Trummelbach Falls without even too much complaint. As if to spite my headache, fever, chills, and ever-more-raw throat, I traipsed semi-gamely through cave after cave and staircase after staircase in this massive waterfall that single-handedly drains the runoff from 3 massive glaciers. Over 20,000 liters of water gush out PER SECOND. The thing is deafening, chilly, wet, and almost entirely viewed from within the caves that house it. I spent the rest of the day lying down and trying not to be sick, unsuccessfully, as it turns out.
Friday, August 3, 2007
8/2/07 - Lauterbrunnen
8/2/07- Lauterbrunnen
we slept in till 10 today, given that we could hear the rain pouring down on the roof and knew we would get no hiking done today.
We cooked rosti for lunch, and I had another confidence-building impromptu conversation in french. We went to the book exchange in town where I exchanged my Jose Saramago for a Clive Cussler, which is eh but will keep me occupied, at least. I tried to call my dad twice after having emailed to tell him when I'd be calling, both times to an off phone, and have since received no emails to show he got my increasignly upset messages.
Made more salad and grilled-cheese sandwiches amidst a sudden, thunder and lightning filled storm, and have been reading and drinking and hiding from the rain in our caravan ever since.
It's awesome to go to sleep without having the "what time should we set the alarm clock for?" discussion.
we slept in till 10 today, given that we could hear the rain pouring down on the roof and knew we would get no hiking done today.
We cooked rosti for lunch, and I had another confidence-building impromptu conversation in french. We went to the book exchange in town where I exchanged my Jose Saramago for a Clive Cussler, which is eh but will keep me occupied, at least. I tried to call my dad twice after having emailed to tell him when I'd be calling, both times to an off phone, and have since received no emails to show he got my increasignly upset messages.
Made more salad and grilled-cheese sandwiches amidst a sudden, thunder and lightning filled storm, and have been reading and drinking and hiding from the rain in our caravan ever since.
It's awesome to go to sleep without having the "what time should we set the alarm clock for?" discussion.
8/1/07 - Lauterbrunnen
8/1/07- Lauterbrunnen
Thankfully we solved the mattress crack problem of our first night, so last night as cold-air puff free, and we got up at 8am wide awake. Today is Swiss national day, so the swiss are all patriotic today - even the cashier had painted little swiss flags on her fingernails. There were fireworks on and off all day, a parade in Interlaken, a bonfire in a sheer cliff-side, and a 4th of July worthy fireworks display at night. It was so cool, because every time a firework went off, you could hear the sharp detonation, then the rolling, crackling thunder of the echoes as they echoed down the valley.
didn't do much today because we were sore from yesterday. I uploaded 90 pictures, blogged, emailed, we read and napped, did laundry, and genrally hung out. For dinner we made a copy of the sausagee-cheese salad we had in Murren, plus a large number of beers and swiss chocadate.
I hard-boiled eggs to go in that salad, and that's all it takes to make me feel like I can't cook at all. I swear to god they're impossible.
Talked to my mom for a long time this morning, ans Shannon this afternoon. Tried to call my dad but no luck - besides, he didn't even email to acknowledge my first failed attempt.
Thankfully we solved the mattress crack problem of our first night, so last night as cold-air puff free, and we got up at 8am wide awake. Today is Swiss national day, so the swiss are all patriotic today - even the cashier had painted little swiss flags on her fingernails. There were fireworks on and off all day, a parade in Interlaken, a bonfire in a sheer cliff-side, and a 4th of July worthy fireworks display at night. It was so cool, because every time a firework went off, you could hear the sharp detonation, then the rolling, crackling thunder of the echoes as they echoed down the valley.
didn't do much today because we were sore from yesterday. I uploaded 90 pictures, blogged, emailed, we read and napped, did laundry, and genrally hung out. For dinner we made a copy of the sausagee-cheese salad we had in Murren, plus a large number of beers and swiss chocadate.
I hard-boiled eggs to go in that salad, and that's all it takes to make me feel like I can't cook at all. I swear to god they're impossible.
Talked to my mom for a long time this morning, ans Shannon this afternoon. Tried to call my dad but no luck - besides, he didn't even email to acknowledge my first failed attempt.
7/31/07 - Lauterbrunnen
7/31/07- Lauterbrunnen
we finally got to Lauterbrunnen last night in a called-in ghetto Contiki coach that didn't even have seatbelts, despite the EU law we hear so much about. We got in at 10:45pm, and I guess the good thing is that Adrian, who works at the campsite, remembered us and we got hooked up with a caravan that has a fridge and working stovetop, though no running water. Still, we were able to cook some prepackaged pasta that we had wisely bought at a service stop, even though the communal litchen was closed. After that, we just fell into a hastily-made bed.
This morning we got up and left the campsite by 9am and hiked up to Murren, which is a stunning hike with an ascent of over 700 meters! It was amazing how fast we got so high above the little village we had walked in, and what a breathtaking panoramic view of the valley we had from up there.
We had a great lunch at a local cafe in Murren - rosti (a swiss dish much like hash browns) with fried eggs and a sausage and cheese salad. We had planned to walk to Gimmelwald, down to Stechelberg, and back to Lauterbrunnen from there, but my hip was killing me an it had been an extremely steep 4-hour ascent, so we decided to take the cable car down and save the Murren-Gimmelwald-Stechelberg part for another day. On the way down, we shared the cable car with a billion and a half people with superfluous hiking poles, 2 huskies, and 2 large carts full of fragrant wheels of cheese.
On our ascent the only people we saw were 3 mountain bikers and a lone runner (these swiss are crazy!), but along the flat part, there were heaps of families decked out in excessive hiking gear. How... Appropriate?
After getting back we drank swiss 'lager hell' beer and made pasta with our special turbo-charged additions, and then we went to bed, though not before noticing how many more tourists there were in Lauterbrunnen than last time we were here.
we finally got to Lauterbrunnen last night in a called-in ghetto Contiki coach that didn't even have seatbelts, despite the EU law we hear so much about. We got in at 10:45pm, and I guess the good thing is that Adrian, who works at the campsite, remembered us and we got hooked up with a caravan that has a fridge and working stovetop, though no running water. Still, we were able to cook some prepackaged pasta that we had wisely bought at a service stop, even though the communal litchen was closed. After that, we just fell into a hastily-made bed.
This morning we got up and left the campsite by 9am and hiked up to Murren, which is a stunning hike with an ascent of over 700 meters! It was amazing how fast we got so high above the little village we had walked in, and what a breathtaking panoramic view of the valley we had from up there.
We had a great lunch at a local cafe in Murren - rosti (a swiss dish much like hash browns) with fried eggs and a sausage and cheese salad. We had planned to walk to Gimmelwald, down to Stechelberg, and back to Lauterbrunnen from there, but my hip was killing me an it had been an extremely steep 4-hour ascent, so we decided to take the cable car down and save the Murren-Gimmelwald-Stechelberg part for another day. On the way down, we shared the cable car with a billion and a half people with superfluous hiking poles, 2 huskies, and 2 large carts full of fragrant wheels of cheese.
On our ascent the only people we saw were 3 mountain bikers and a lone runner (these swiss are crazy!), but along the flat part, there were heaps of families decked out in excessive hiking gear. How... Appropriate?
After getting back we drank swiss 'lager hell' beer and made pasta with our special turbo-charged additions, and then we went to bed, though not before noticing how many more tourists there were in Lauterbrunnen than last time we were here.
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
New pics!
Pics from Venice, Croatia, and Rome, about 90 pics in all, get em at www.flickr.com/photos/brettgphoto
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
ok so. the big dump is here
7/10/07: travel day!
We got up in time for one more awesome 4 euro breakfast before getting on the bus, which is good considering how long the day ahead would be. As we have come to expect, an easy, pleasant ride on the bus, though because of watching scrubs on the bus I now want to watch the show from the beginning. We got to our intermediate stop, St Johann, early, and the hostel there used to give us this big breakfast,but laws have changed, so we get no breakfast but still have to stop for an hour,and it was raining. We got to Venice around 6pm, got some food at the store a the campsite, and made dinner. Drank 2 24oz italian beers and a bottle of fizzy pink wine along with our crostinis, salami, and cheese. Yum. We even were able to drink wine without a screwtop, thanks to the swiss army knife Brett got in Lautrbrunnen!
7/11/07- Venice
We set the alarm to get up in time for the 9am shuttle into Venice, but when we heard the rain on the roof at 7:45, we decided to sleep in. Happily, when we woke up jus after 10, it had stopped raining. We missed the 11 am shuttle by 6 min, which was a bummer because the noon bus was really packed. It took about 30 min to get into Venice proper, and when we got there a girl from our Busabout bus the day before attached herself to us, so we had a tagalong. Venice is an incredibly charming city when you get away from the main tourist areas like Piazza San Marco. We didn't even bother with a map, just navigated by signs pointing out major sights. It's quite fun to wander around in the little teeny streets and look in all the shop windows at all the masks and stuff. There are no cars in Venice proper, and they think that bicycles are for children, so it's very quiet inside the city, no fucking mopeds. It's all very pedestrianized. There are tons of little bridges over small canals, plus the huge Rialto bridge, which is just swarmed with tourists. We got a little frustrated trying to get back to the shuttle, because we kept hitting alleys that dead-ended at the grand canal. However, I made good use of our map and found our way back. Got some great pictures, to be uploaded probably in Munich.
when we got back we bought 4 more huge Italian beers, two bottles of wine, and food for dinner. We played drinking blackjack, ate blue cheese, talked with the busabout driver, and then went to the campsite bar with the Bad-luck couple. Had to retreat to the cabin when the mosquitoes started eating me alive. Good thing, too, because I had a vicious headache in the morning.
7/12/07- Venice
Today we slept in and decided not to go into Venice proper. I just coudn't justify the 4€ and the crowds. Plus the canals reek. We went to the campsite pool and lounged around for 4 hours, did laundry, and I got to talk to my dad for 45min, though I did get eaten alive from the knees down again. Went to bed early after finally trying the a/c and finding that it in fact works.
7/13/07-crazy insane travel day
Well, the short bus ride to Ancona was nice, with some lovely ocean views following a surprisingly long stretch of cornfields. Brett surprised me with ice cream while we were waiting for the ferry in Ancona- said I looked cute and cute girls get ice cream. He's so sweet.
Being on this trip makes me wonder why so few Americans travel in Europe. Tons of Aussies do, though, and Kiwis and Canadians a good bit as well. I wrote a whole bunch in my journal about this, but it would take a long time to type.
I wrote a whole crapload in my journal on the ferry, but suffice to say it was uncomfortable and interminable, followed by 6 hours of waiting in Split, where we apparently chose to sit in 'homeless people central' by the looks of things.
7/14/07-Split
We were supposed to be belowdecks on the boat, but we got upgraded to a top deck cabin, with our own bathroom and shower. It's the traditional trick shower you find on all boats, but it's ours!
The boat is a fairly large boat with an entirely Croatian crew, and the provided lunches are really big and good. Soup, some sort of salad, meat and veggies. Fruit for dessert. After lunch we got under way, and Brett and I went up to the top deck to sunbathe. It's quite hot up there, but occasionally a breeze popped up to cool us off. Then we stopped along the coast, and we all jumped off the boat into the Adriatic! I'm rather proud to have been the second person to leap from the railings, and the first girl to do so by a hefty 6 or 7 person margin. I rock. The water was perfectly clear, and a perfect balance of warm enough to wallow in but cool enough to be refreshing. We treaded (trod?) water for 30min, then hopped back on the boat to laze in the sun for a few more hours.
The coastal views are fantastic. They're unassuming, but its all spectacular white cliffs, mountains all befurred with pine trees and shrubs, like a chia pet gone horribly awry. All along the ridges, there are lines of white-walled houses with red roofs and arched collonade facades. The contrast of the deep blue ocean and the olive, tan, and white of the coastline is quite arresting.
We pulled into Makarska, our stop for the night, and after a fun struggle with our recalcitrant shower (aka sink, since it's one of those boat showers where the faucet is the shower head and the entire bathroom is the stall) Brett and I set off for beers. Dinner at the same place we had beer with the combined groups from both busabout boats. It was ok, but not especially impressive. They did have cherry brandy though which was pretty good. Then we got gelato for the equivalent of $1. I guess I paid in dignity, though. I didn't want to just assume that the gelato guy spoke english, so I asked him, and he said, in perfect english, "no, I only speak Croatian." Jerkass.
7/15/07- Croatia
Got up in perfect time for breakfast, where Brett tried the spreadable meat paste, which smelled like cat food but apparently tasted pretty good. When we stopped for a swim break I once again proved how hard I rock by being the only girl to jump from the very top deck of the boat. We swam for a long time in water that so clear that you could see the bottom many many feet below us, then went to Mljet, where we traipsed to the national park (90kuna each! Pricey park!) where we ditched the group and swam in the huge saltwater lake for a couple hours. Walking in the park involved a thick, intense scent of pine resin, and the sawing insects so loud it seemed like saws. These insects were so loud that as we sailed you could hear them from the islands, way out where we were in the channels. When we came back to the boat we got lost 8 boats deep, because ours had moved to another stack. They don't dock in separate slips here, they just dock 8 boats right alongside each other and you hop through all of them to get to your particular boat.
We learned some Croatian, after which time they started bringing us free Croatian snacks. We had pizza and lasagna for dinner, a few beers, then tried to go to sleep. Between the insane heat of our room and the raucous Aussie party on deck, that proved a bit difficult.
7/16/07- Croatia
happy birthday to Josh!! I tried to figure out how to call, but I couldn't figure it out, so I emailed. The loud drunk people from last night left a huge mess on the upper deck, and the poor crew guy had to clean it up.
This Croatia cruise is like a vacation within a vacation! It's the best gift I've ever gotten. Tonight Brett tried to order an amaretto and the crew guy told him it was a woman's drink and gave him slivovic instead!
We docked in Dubrovnik tonight, and instead of wedging ourselves into a packed bus with everyone else, we walked to the Old City. It wasn't very far but it was swelteringly hot. Really really hot. Unbelievably hot. W walked around in the old town for a while, and while it's really crowded with tourist shops and stuff, I've been told the coral jewelry in Korcula, where we are staying tomorrow night, is awesome, so I'm holding out. After fortifying ourselves with some really good ice cream (mine was cinnamon and , tasted like a churro) we braved walking the old city walls. If anything, it was hotter on the walls than down in the city streets. My only consolation was that every single person was just drenched with sweat, just like me. The views were pretty sweet, though, especially of the town. After the walls, we walked past the boat and to the supermarket and then back to the boat. I sluiced off with a cold shower, then we spent the rest of the night drinking on the boat, playing cards, chatting with the crew, and chatting with other passengers as they passed through.
7/17/07- Croatia
today we woke up in the nick of time for breakfast, and as we stopped for our swim break, just as the engine cut, we saw a billowing cloud of toilet paper, and, I assume, sewage, bloom out the side of the boat. Apparently they "accidentally" jettisoned the tanks. Eeew. We made them move before we got into the water.
Bought some earrings in Korcula, after a stop in Tristenek, a teeny tiny fishing village. The captain's dinner was quite good, especially the spaghetti carbonara, and the whole fish has inspired Brett and now he wants to cook whole fish. We drank on the boat, then a big group of us went for late night pizza. The pizza here is seriously some of the tastiest pizza I've had anywhere.
7/18/07- Croatia
I fell down the stairs last night, and managed to give myself a truly spectacular bruise on my ass. Luckily it's high enough that a) it doesn't hurt to sit, and b)I can show it off. Our swim break was several hours long, so we hopped in and out of the water several times, then cruised into Hvar. It was hotter than satan's panties again, but we still walked around, had fucking amazing nutella ice cream, then went back to the boat to try to cool off. We had a picnic with the group tonight, where Brett's swiss army knife was in high demand. We had salami, a local goat cheese, and bread and calimocho. Why does it seem like I've described that meal before? Hmmmm.
We passed on $20 cocktails to chill on the boat, then during the dance mix of that traditional zorba the greek song, Julan and the chef lady start clapping and yelling, and all of a sudden we're doing a circle dance like we did at Petru's wedding, where the old man told Brett that you knew it was a good dance if the women's breasts were jiggling.
When we went to bed it was so hot in the room that I just soaked the front of my shirt with water, and got up several times during the night to repeat. Brett ended up getting up in the middle of the night to take a cold shower. It did actually seem to keep us a bit cooler.
7/19/07- Croatia
woke up sweaty with the sun blazing into the cabin at 7:15, had bre kasta
, and found out one of the passengers had been arrested last night because an ATM ate his card and he yelled and screamed and broke some advertising or something. He got a 9000 kuna fine - that's like $1800!!
When we had our swim break in Bol, the current was so strong that I was a little concerned about getting back to the ladder! Brett and I got some cool burst shots of us jumping off the boat, though. It was a long, hot day with no hint of breeze to keep me from melting at all. When we got into Omis, we walked around in the heat anyway, but man. We walked up this huge tower on the towering shoulder of the mountains that jut up just past the coast, a journey full of steep, high, slippery Croatian stone, and so steep at the top that you had to climb a ladder up the last bit. Oh, and the stone here is the stone they used to build the white house. Went to a place called Barboli's for excellent pizza and beers, then went to bed early, since our room wasn't too unbearably hot.
7/20/07- Croatia
aside from 4 drunk Frenchmen who jumped into the harbor singing, yelling, and giggling like dolphins, best night of sleep so far. In fact, wonder of wonders, there was a breeze this morning! About half our boat went rafting this morning, so we didn't get underway until 1 or 2. My massive bruise continues to evolve and get uglier. When we got into Split we had to say goodbye to Colin, the Tazzie we met on board, because he had a ferry that night back to Ancona and then another to Greece - 40 hours of ferries there. Also we had to say goodbye to Liz and Dan, the only other Americans on board, because they had a flight back to Michigan. Sad. We had dinner and drinks with most of the group, including flaming shots in a god-sent air-conditioned bar.
7/21/07- Croatia
I got up and slept out on deck three separate times last night. I think it was my worst night of sleep yet. Then we left the boat to take up residence in the same park where we waited for the cruise to start, only this time we were waiting for checkin at our hotel. The room was quite nice, and blessedly air-conditioned, so mostly we hid out in there, took a nap, venturing out only for food and to act on our decision to slash Nice to 1 night and extend our stay in Lauterbrunnen to 7 nights. Happily, I received emails back both from the hostel in Nice where we were canceling and Camping Jungfrau, confirming our respective cancellations and bookings, including that they had managed, as requested, to switch our many-layered booking in Lauterbrunnen to one private room the whole stay. yay!!! I'm really excited about spending lots of time there again. I snagged an abandoned copy of The Memory Keeper's Daughter from the boat, having finished the Margaret Atwood and Jose Saramago books, and am already halfway through it. It's really good.
7/22/07-Insane crazy travel day(s)
The one bad thing about this pension is the lack of hot water in which to shower. Yipes! Checked out as late as possible, and have been drifting about ever since, killing time in Diocletian's Palace, which is the really cool retirement palace of Roman emporer Diocletian, who holds the record as emporer who killed and harrassed the most christians. He was poisoned, along with. is wife and children, about 5 years after moving in. Now, the palace is a working ruin, with tourist shops, sighs, pensions, restaurants, bars, and residences inside its walls. I was decared UNESCO protected i n he early 19070's, which is quite early. Our ferry leaves at 10pm, so we'll probably go down to go through customs around 6. Last time we were able to snag a table and seats because we were so early, and besides, we'll be waiting no matter where we aer. The only good thing is that we dropped off our big bags in lockers storage last night, so we've just had day backs to carry around in the heat today.
We got our passports stamped again! Yay! Got on the ferry after two huge beers in plastic bottles. We played rummy to 1000 points, then settled down to sleep. I wish we had drunk a whole lot of beer the first time, because we both slept for about 6 hours.
7/23/07- more travel day
Got off the ferry just fine around 9 am, then hung out in the port authority building eating crackers and cheese and playing rummy. When we were finally done waiting there and at the train station, our cheerful blue bus pulled up and Harriet was squealing and waving hello wildly.
The bus was PACKED and this group of four Aussie girls refused to give up the rows that each girl had to herself. Bitches. Luckily someone else was nice and moved so that we could get seats.
At the campground we got all checked in, worked out Harriet booking our Lauterbrunnen to Munich sector, since, having traveled it once the system won't let us do it online ourselves, and then we went to the supermarket to get food, beer, and wine. It was an early night, cuz we were beat.
7/24/07- Rome
We got up early today to get a head start on Rome. We got into the city after successfully navigating both the bus and metro system, something that always makes me feel very self-sufficient. The Colosseum is really RIGHT THERE when you come out of the metro station, and we got there right around 8:30, so while it was hot and crowded, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. The Colosseum is really massive and impressive, but whether it's having seen too many pictures of it or too many digital reproductions, I mostly left with the impression that it was big and old.
On the way to the Pantheon, we made a wrong turn and stumbled into the ruins of the Roman Forum. It was incredible. Just a big valley, maybe 2 football fields wide and 3-4 long, with foundations, toppled walls, columns, and monuments scattered about, punctuated by incongruously standing sets of 6 columns and a bit of roof, or a piece of a carving, or a nearly intact temple. Very surreal, and I found it almost as affecting, and in much the same way, as Stonehege was.
Then we went through another victory arch (I think this one was Titus'), checked out the Caesar monument, which is the very clear basis for Caesar's Palace in Vegas, and went to the Pantheon.
It sucks that the Pantheon has been taken over and Christianized, but it's still a pretty powerful place, and the dome is dizzying optically, with the hole in the center to steady you. Supposedly it's there so that the rain can wash the temple clean, but I don't know if nowadays they cover the hole in bad weather.
After that we tried to go see the Trevi Fountain, but it was being cleaned, so it was dry and had men with scrub-brooms scrambling about inside. It looked a bit like I imagine those cleaner fish in whales' mouths might look. Our luck must have completely run out by then, because our last stop of the day was the Spanish steps, which were totally pointless and totally disappointing.
Then we made our way back through public transportation, which included an interesting scene on the bus. Some asshole Italian brought a massive group of teenagers on the bus, so it was totally crammed, and there were two backpackers loaded down with gear, front and back. Incidentally, this is my worst nightmare, carrying full day and real pack, on bus or metro, it's totally packed and you're completely huge and unwieldy, AND it's about 1000°. Awful. Anyway, the girl catches a guy with his hand in her front pack, yells something Aussie-ish like "OI!" and at the next stop he and his 4 accomplices get off, one of whom shoves the guy backpacker, knocking him back into some old man who'd been glaring at me, I think for daring to hang on using the same bar as him. The old guy shoves the backpacker, who tries to explain what happened. Then the old guy's wife shoves the backpacker, and then the old couple gets off at the next stop. Fucking Italy, man. Directly after this, Brett and I wen to the grocery, and though we literally had half our groceries on the belt, some bitch swoops in and plops her stuff down in front of ours on the belt.
In the afternoon we drank a lot, splashed around in the pool a bit, and on the 3rd try I finally got in touch with my mom, chatted for a while, and figured out which saint medallion to get grandma at the Vatican tomorrow.
7/25/07-Rome
we got up early again to take the 8am shuttle to the Vatican, which was a bit of an oversold kerfuffle, but we got there, and that's what matters. The line for the Sistine Chapel was super long, so we started at St. Peter's Basilica. The obelisk outside is from Heliopolis in Egypt, too. St. Peter's Basilica is MASSIVE. Watching girls get turned away for inapropriate dress, I was very glad to ahve ilstened to advice, because I wore long capris, and brought a T-shirt to pull over my tank top, and I was fine. The basilica is a perfect example of the ridiculous opulence and wealth of the Catholic church. I don't understand how people can be spiritually moved by it, but hey.
We got in line for the Sistine chapel, but after maybe 2 minutes we admitted to each other that we weren't THAT interested in the first place, much less to wait 4 hours for something that I at least am in large part seeing so people don't give me shit for skipping the Sistine chapel. Besides, I was grouchy because the Pope is supposed to come out and wave on Wednesdays, but he's on holiday, so I missed it. He looks like the emperor from Star Wars anyway. The old Pope was probaly just as much of a dick as this one, but at least he LOOKED nice and benevolent.
Turns out, it took us over 5 minutes to VERY briskly walk past the rest of the line for the chapel, so good call on our part. That's at least a half mile! We lounged at the pool, and are just relaxing until we leave for Florence tomorrow. Maybe Florence and Cinque Terre will change my opinion, but so far, I am not a fan of Italy. I wouldn't come back here again for vacation. Spain is still my favorite country by far.
7/26/07-travel day to Florence
Not much to say about today, except that we traveled on a quite full coach to florence with one of the dreaded 1 1/2 hour useless stops in Orvieto. The campsite was okay, but their store was terrible and the kitchen facilities even worse. Brett walked really far in the heat to get us food. We were only in Florence for like 18 hours, so there's not much to say about it.
7/27/07-travel day to Cinque Terre
Hopped on the bus for a 4 hour bus ride to Cinque Terre, though it was actually only 2 hours or so, since we spent close to 2 hours in Pisa. It was a long stop, but it was really cool to see the famous leaning tower. I always thought it was alone but there are some really cool buildings nearby it as well.
We got on the correct local train from La Spezia, where we were dropped off, to Riomaggiore, the village we staed in. We also overheard some dumb Aussie girls talking about how they can't wait to go home so that they can wear high heels. Wow.
Our hostel is quite nice, with free laundry, kitchen, ensuite bathroom, and only 5 beds in the room. We met Nina and Allen, two extremely nice Canadians, and, strangely enough, our other roommate went to RB.
They all came later, though. We just dropped off our stuff and took the train to Monterossa, the farthest of the 5 villages, and hiked the Lover's Lane trail back to Riomaggiore. Whoever named it Lover's Lane had a lofty idea of love, because you have to really love each other to still be exchanging sappy sentiments after 12km of foot-high stairs and grueling heat. My entire back, most of my front, and the entirety of the back of my shorts were soaked. Yum. Still, it was a gorgeous hike with stunning coastal views that reminded me of the northern california coast. You hiked through vineyards and people's backyard gardens full of basil and tomatoes and squash and such. Very nice. Cooked dinner and drank a bunch while chatting politics, language, and Chinese-Taiwanese relations with the Canadians.
7/28/07-Cinque Terre
Didn't do much today, just walked around Riomaggiore, ate gelati, and hung out. Cooked again, and hung out with the Canadians, went to bed early.
7/29/07-travel day to Nice
Got up in plenty of time for the train to La Spezia, despite some dumb girls who tried to tell me that the train timetable said certain trains were the only ones running on Sundays. In fact, the timetable said which trains were extra on Sundays, ie in addition to the regular trains scheduled. But then, these girls have 8-bedroom houses at home and got their 5-month trip entirely paid for as 18th birthday presents. So.
We got to Nice just fine, and it's been interesting just how comfortable I feel being back in France, even if it's just for a night. I guess it makes ssense, but even Brett said he felt really comfortable. And! We were getting settled ino our dorm when something really cool happened. We had both taken top bunks (mine in the narrow edge of the roof slant. I literally had a maximum of 3feet clearance on the tall side, with less than a foot on the short side), and there was one bunk that looked sort of made, but also sort of rumpled. The cleaning lady came in and demanded in french who was there, and I responded that I didn't know, but that I didn't think anyone was. Then she asked me something too fast for me to catch, so I asked her to slow down. She had asked when we arrived, so I told her 5 minutes ago. It was so cool, because not only did she not automatically switch to english when she heard me speak, but I carried out a useful conversation that I had no opportunity to rehearse! I felt very accomplished.
We got canned pasta, canned pears and peaches, and hot pockets for dinner, along with two bottles of local rose. Speaking of wine, I now have ammunition against anyone who gives me shit about putting ice in my wine, because I saw a group of 6 or 7 french people calmly putting ice in their wine. Voila! Instant justification.
After a quick shower (also cold, since otherwise the shower tried to scald me occasionally), we went to bed.
7/30/07-Travel day
Well, the day started so-so, and had it's ups and downs all day long. We began with a guy still drunk from last night running to catch the bus as his friend ran up and down the aisle screaming at the driver to stop and pick him up. They got him on board, but he was still so out of it that he couldn't even find his passport. Less than 5 minutes later, the driver rolled into the bumper of a car at a stop sign, so we had to stop and exchange info, etc.
Luckily, shortly afterward, we stopped in Eze for the only onus stop I've really enjoyed so far. We took a tour of the Fragonard perfume factory, tested some perfumes, and Brett got me this awesome perfume (real parfum, not eau de toilett) that smells a lot like strawberries. He also got one for himself that is awesome, a mandarin spicy scent. Yum. Mine's called 'juste un baiser' or 'just a kiss' and his is called 'diamant.' I told him that I'd turn him into an effeminate frenchman yet.
However, things took a turn for the worse several hours later, when the bus broke down on the freeway. We only narrowly avoided being towed and ticketed by the incredibly over-zealous Italian police. I think they're just mad that they have pansy-ish fuschia stripes on their pants. Anyway, thanks to a passenger who spoke Italian, 200€ to get us off the road, and a fortuitously passing empty Contiki bus, we were on our way again after oly 2-3 hours on the side of the road. When I say passing I mean that the bus was about 200 km away when we called. But at least we are back on the road, and should be only about 3 hours late getting in.
Sigh. Anyway, yesterday was 8 weeks away, with only 5 more to go. We also found out Kudra is staying with Ann for the rest of the summer because the backyard is getting done! That's super incredibly awesome! I'm really excited to see what it looks like when it's all finished!
We got up in time for one more awesome 4 euro breakfast before getting on the bus, which is good considering how long the day ahead would be. As we have come to expect, an easy, pleasant ride on the bus, though because of watching scrubs on the bus I now want to watch the show from the beginning. We got to our intermediate stop, St Johann, early, and the hostel there used to give us this big breakfast,but laws have changed, so we get no breakfast but still have to stop for an hour,and it was raining. We got to Venice around 6pm, got some food at the store a the campsite, and made dinner. Drank 2 24oz italian beers and a bottle of fizzy pink wine along with our crostinis, salami, and cheese. Yum. We even were able to drink wine without a screwtop, thanks to the swiss army knife Brett got in Lautrbrunnen!
7/11/07- Venice
We set the alarm to get up in time for the 9am shuttle into Venice, but when we heard the rain on the roof at 7:45, we decided to sleep in. Happily, when we woke up jus after 10, it had stopped raining. We missed the 11 am shuttle by 6 min, which was a bummer because the noon bus was really packed. It took about 30 min to get into Venice proper, and when we got there a girl from our Busabout bus the day before attached herself to us, so we had a tagalong. Venice is an incredibly charming city when you get away from the main tourist areas like Piazza San Marco. We didn't even bother with a map, just navigated by signs pointing out major sights. It's quite fun to wander around in the little teeny streets and look in all the shop windows at all the masks and stuff. There are no cars in Venice proper, and they think that bicycles are for children, so it's very quiet inside the city, no fucking mopeds. It's all very pedestrianized. There are tons of little bridges over small canals, plus the huge Rialto bridge, which is just swarmed with tourists. We got a little frustrated trying to get back to the shuttle, because we kept hitting alleys that dead-ended at the grand canal. However, I made good use of our map and found our way back. Got some great pictures, to be uploaded probably in Munich.
when we got back we bought 4 more huge Italian beers, two bottles of wine, and food for dinner. We played drinking blackjack, ate blue cheese, talked with the busabout driver, and then went to the campsite bar with the Bad-luck couple. Had to retreat to the cabin when the mosquitoes started eating me alive. Good thing, too, because I had a vicious headache in the morning.
7/12/07- Venice
Today we slept in and decided not to go into Venice proper. I just coudn't justify the 4€ and the crowds. Plus the canals reek. We went to the campsite pool and lounged around for 4 hours, did laundry, and I got to talk to my dad for 45min, though I did get eaten alive from the knees down again. Went to bed early after finally trying the a/c and finding that it in fact works.
7/13/07-crazy insane travel day
Well, the short bus ride to Ancona was nice, with some lovely ocean views following a surprisingly long stretch of cornfields. Brett surprised me with ice cream while we were waiting for the ferry in Ancona- said I looked cute and cute girls get ice cream. He's so sweet.
Being on this trip makes me wonder why so few Americans travel in Europe. Tons of Aussies do, though, and Kiwis and Canadians a good bit as well. I wrote a whole bunch in my journal about this, but it would take a long time to type.
I wrote a whole crapload in my journal on the ferry, but suffice to say it was uncomfortable and interminable, followed by 6 hours of waiting in Split, where we apparently chose to sit in 'homeless people central' by the looks of things.
7/14/07-Split
We were supposed to be belowdecks on the boat, but we got upgraded to a top deck cabin, with our own bathroom and shower. It's the traditional trick shower you find on all boats, but it's ours!
The boat is a fairly large boat with an entirely Croatian crew, and the provided lunches are really big and good. Soup, some sort of salad, meat and veggies. Fruit for dessert. After lunch we got under way, and Brett and I went up to the top deck to sunbathe. It's quite hot up there, but occasionally a breeze popped up to cool us off. Then we stopped along the coast, and we all jumped off the boat into the Adriatic! I'm rather proud to have been the second person to leap from the railings, and the first girl to do so by a hefty 6 or 7 person margin. I rock. The water was perfectly clear, and a perfect balance of warm enough to wallow in but cool enough to be refreshing. We treaded (trod?) water for 30min, then hopped back on the boat to laze in the sun for a few more hours.
The coastal views are fantastic. They're unassuming, but its all spectacular white cliffs, mountains all befurred with pine trees and shrubs, like a chia pet gone horribly awry. All along the ridges, there are lines of white-walled houses with red roofs and arched collonade facades. The contrast of the deep blue ocean and the olive, tan, and white of the coastline is quite arresting.
We pulled into Makarska, our stop for the night, and after a fun struggle with our recalcitrant shower (aka sink, since it's one of those boat showers where the faucet is the shower head and the entire bathroom is the stall) Brett and I set off for beers. Dinner at the same place we had beer with the combined groups from both busabout boats. It was ok, but not especially impressive. They did have cherry brandy though which was pretty good. Then we got gelato for the equivalent of $1. I guess I paid in dignity, though. I didn't want to just assume that the gelato guy spoke english, so I asked him, and he said, in perfect english, "no, I only speak Croatian." Jerkass.
7/15/07- Croatia
Got up in perfect time for breakfast, where Brett tried the spreadable meat paste, which smelled like cat food but apparently tasted pretty good. When we stopped for a swim break I once again proved how hard I rock by being the only girl to jump from the very top deck of the boat. We swam for a long time in water that so clear that you could see the bottom many many feet below us, then went to Mljet, where we traipsed to the national park (90kuna each! Pricey park!) where we ditched the group and swam in the huge saltwater lake for a couple hours. Walking in the park involved a thick, intense scent of pine resin, and the sawing insects so loud it seemed like saws. These insects were so loud that as we sailed you could hear them from the islands, way out where we were in the channels. When we came back to the boat we got lost 8 boats deep, because ours had moved to another stack. They don't dock in separate slips here, they just dock 8 boats right alongside each other and you hop through all of them to get to your particular boat.
We learned some Croatian, after which time they started bringing us free Croatian snacks. We had pizza and lasagna for dinner, a few beers, then tried to go to sleep. Between the insane heat of our room and the raucous Aussie party on deck, that proved a bit difficult.
7/16/07- Croatia
happy birthday to Josh!! I tried to figure out how to call, but I couldn't figure it out, so I emailed. The loud drunk people from last night left a huge mess on the upper deck, and the poor crew guy had to clean it up.
This Croatia cruise is like a vacation within a vacation! It's the best gift I've ever gotten. Tonight Brett tried to order an amaretto and the crew guy told him it was a woman's drink and gave him slivovic instead!
We docked in Dubrovnik tonight, and instead of wedging ourselves into a packed bus with everyone else, we walked to the Old City. It wasn't very far but it was swelteringly hot. Really really hot. Unbelievably hot. W walked around in the old town for a while, and while it's really crowded with tourist shops and stuff, I've been told the coral jewelry in Korcula, where we are staying tomorrow night, is awesome, so I'm holding out. After fortifying ourselves with some really good ice cream (mine was cinnamon and , tasted like a churro) we braved walking the old city walls. If anything, it was hotter on the walls than down in the city streets. My only consolation was that every single person was just drenched with sweat, just like me. The views were pretty sweet, though, especially of the town. After the walls, we walked past the boat and to the supermarket and then back to the boat. I sluiced off with a cold shower, then we spent the rest of the night drinking on the boat, playing cards, chatting with the crew, and chatting with other passengers as they passed through.
7/17/07- Croatia
today we woke up in the nick of time for breakfast, and as we stopped for our swim break, just as the engine cut, we saw a billowing cloud of toilet paper, and, I assume, sewage, bloom out the side of the boat. Apparently they "accidentally" jettisoned the tanks. Eeew. We made them move before we got into the water.
Bought some earrings in Korcula, after a stop in Tristenek, a teeny tiny fishing village. The captain's dinner was quite good, especially the spaghetti carbonara, and the whole fish has inspired Brett and now he wants to cook whole fish. We drank on the boat, then a big group of us went for late night pizza. The pizza here is seriously some of the tastiest pizza I've had anywhere.
7/18/07- Croatia
I fell down the stairs last night, and managed to give myself a truly spectacular bruise on my ass. Luckily it's high enough that a) it doesn't hurt to sit, and b)I can show it off. Our swim break was several hours long, so we hopped in and out of the water several times, then cruised into Hvar. It was hotter than satan's panties again, but we still walked around, had fucking amazing nutella ice cream, then went back to the boat to try to cool off. We had a picnic with the group tonight, where Brett's swiss army knife was in high demand. We had salami, a local goat cheese, and bread and calimocho. Why does it seem like I've described that meal before? Hmmmm.
We passed on $20 cocktails to chill on the boat, then during the dance mix of that traditional zorba the greek song, Julan and the chef lady start clapping and yelling, and all of a sudden we're doing a circle dance like we did at Petru's wedding, where the old man told Brett that you knew it was a good dance if the women's breasts were jiggling.
When we went to bed it was so hot in the room that I just soaked the front of my shirt with water, and got up several times during the night to repeat. Brett ended up getting up in the middle of the night to take a cold shower. It did actually seem to keep us a bit cooler.
7/19/07- Croatia
woke up sweaty with the sun blazing into the cabin at 7:15, had bre kasta
, and found out one of the passengers had been arrested last night because an ATM ate his card and he yelled and screamed and broke some advertising or something. He got a 9000 kuna fine - that's like $1800!!
When we had our swim break in Bol, the current was so strong that I was a little concerned about getting back to the ladder! Brett and I got some cool burst shots of us jumping off the boat, though. It was a long, hot day with no hint of breeze to keep me from melting at all. When we got into Omis, we walked around in the heat anyway, but man. We walked up this huge tower on the towering shoulder of the mountains that jut up just past the coast, a journey full of steep, high, slippery Croatian stone, and so steep at the top that you had to climb a ladder up the last bit. Oh, and the stone here is the stone they used to build the white house. Went to a place called Barboli's for excellent pizza and beers, then went to bed early, since our room wasn't too unbearably hot.
7/20/07- Croatia
aside from 4 drunk Frenchmen who jumped into the harbor singing, yelling, and giggling like dolphins, best night of sleep so far. In fact, wonder of wonders, there was a breeze this morning! About half our boat went rafting this morning, so we didn't get underway until 1 or 2. My massive bruise continues to evolve and get uglier. When we got into Split we had to say goodbye to Colin, the Tazzie we met on board, because he had a ferry that night back to Ancona and then another to Greece - 40 hours of ferries there. Also we had to say goodbye to Liz and Dan, the only other Americans on board, because they had a flight back to Michigan. Sad. We had dinner and drinks with most of the group, including flaming shots in a god-sent air-conditioned bar.
7/21/07- Croatia
I got up and slept out on deck three separate times last night. I think it was my worst night of sleep yet. Then we left the boat to take up residence in the same park where we waited for the cruise to start, only this time we were waiting for checkin at our hotel. The room was quite nice, and blessedly air-conditioned, so mostly we hid out in there, took a nap, venturing out only for food and to act on our decision to slash Nice to 1 night and extend our stay in Lauterbrunnen to 7 nights. Happily, I received emails back both from the hostel in Nice where we were canceling and Camping Jungfrau, confirming our respective cancellations and bookings, including that they had managed, as requested, to switch our many-layered booking in Lauterbrunnen to one private room the whole stay. yay!!! I'm really excited about spending lots of time there again. I snagged an abandoned copy of The Memory Keeper's Daughter from the boat, having finished the Margaret Atwood and Jose Saramago books, and am already halfway through it. It's really good.
7/22/07-Insane crazy travel day(s)
The one bad thing about this pension is the lack of hot water in which to shower. Yipes! Checked out as late as possible, and have been drifting about ever since, killing time in Diocletian's Palace, which is the really cool retirement palace of Roman emporer Diocletian, who holds the record as emporer who killed and harrassed the most christians. He was poisoned, along with. is wife and children, about 5 years after moving in. Now, the palace is a working ruin, with tourist shops, sighs, pensions, restaurants, bars, and residences inside its walls. I was decared UNESCO protected i n he early 19070's, which is quite early. Our ferry leaves at 10pm, so we'll probably go down to go through customs around 6. Last time we were able to snag a table and seats because we were so early, and besides, we'll be waiting no matter where we aer. The only good thing is that we dropped off our big bags in lockers storage last night, so we've just had day backs to carry around in the heat today.
We got our passports stamped again! Yay! Got on the ferry after two huge beers in plastic bottles. We played rummy to 1000 points, then settled down to sleep. I wish we had drunk a whole lot of beer the first time, because we both slept for about 6 hours.
7/23/07- more travel day
Got off the ferry just fine around 9 am, then hung out in the port authority building eating crackers and cheese and playing rummy. When we were finally done waiting there and at the train station, our cheerful blue bus pulled up and Harriet was squealing and waving hello wildly.
The bus was PACKED and this group of four Aussie girls refused to give up the rows that each girl had to herself. Bitches. Luckily someone else was nice and moved so that we could get seats.
At the campground we got all checked in, worked out Harriet booking our Lauterbrunnen to Munich sector, since, having traveled it once the system won't let us do it online ourselves, and then we went to the supermarket to get food, beer, and wine. It was an early night, cuz we were beat.
7/24/07- Rome
We got up early today to get a head start on Rome. We got into the city after successfully navigating both the bus and metro system, something that always makes me feel very self-sufficient. The Colosseum is really RIGHT THERE when you come out of the metro station, and we got there right around 8:30, so while it was hot and crowded, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been. The Colosseum is really massive and impressive, but whether it's having seen too many pictures of it or too many digital reproductions, I mostly left with the impression that it was big and old.
On the way to the Pantheon, we made a wrong turn and stumbled into the ruins of the Roman Forum. It was incredible. Just a big valley, maybe 2 football fields wide and 3-4 long, with foundations, toppled walls, columns, and monuments scattered about, punctuated by incongruously standing sets of 6 columns and a bit of roof, or a piece of a carving, or a nearly intact temple. Very surreal, and I found it almost as affecting, and in much the same way, as Stonehege was.
Then we went through another victory arch (I think this one was Titus'), checked out the Caesar monument, which is the very clear basis for Caesar's Palace in Vegas, and went to the Pantheon.
It sucks that the Pantheon has been taken over and Christianized, but it's still a pretty powerful place, and the dome is dizzying optically, with the hole in the center to steady you. Supposedly it's there so that the rain can wash the temple clean, but I don't know if nowadays they cover the hole in bad weather.
After that we tried to go see the Trevi Fountain, but it was being cleaned, so it was dry and had men with scrub-brooms scrambling about inside. It looked a bit like I imagine those cleaner fish in whales' mouths might look. Our luck must have completely run out by then, because our last stop of the day was the Spanish steps, which were totally pointless and totally disappointing.
Then we made our way back through public transportation, which included an interesting scene on the bus. Some asshole Italian brought a massive group of teenagers on the bus, so it was totally crammed, and there were two backpackers loaded down with gear, front and back. Incidentally, this is my worst nightmare, carrying full day and real pack, on bus or metro, it's totally packed and you're completely huge and unwieldy, AND it's about 1000°. Awful. Anyway, the girl catches a guy with his hand in her front pack, yells something Aussie-ish like "OI!" and at the next stop he and his 4 accomplices get off, one of whom shoves the guy backpacker, knocking him back into some old man who'd been glaring at me, I think for daring to hang on using the same bar as him. The old guy shoves the backpacker, who tries to explain what happened. Then the old guy's wife shoves the backpacker, and then the old couple gets off at the next stop. Fucking Italy, man. Directly after this, Brett and I wen to the grocery, and though we literally had half our groceries on the belt, some bitch swoops in and plops her stuff down in front of ours on the belt.
In the afternoon we drank a lot, splashed around in the pool a bit, and on the 3rd try I finally got in touch with my mom, chatted for a while, and figured out which saint medallion to get grandma at the Vatican tomorrow.
7/25/07-Rome
we got up early again to take the 8am shuttle to the Vatican, which was a bit of an oversold kerfuffle, but we got there, and that's what matters. The line for the Sistine Chapel was super long, so we started at St. Peter's Basilica. The obelisk outside is from Heliopolis in Egypt, too. St. Peter's Basilica is MASSIVE. Watching girls get turned away for inapropriate dress, I was very glad to ahve ilstened to advice, because I wore long capris, and brought a T-shirt to pull over my tank top, and I was fine. The basilica is a perfect example of the ridiculous opulence and wealth of the Catholic church. I don't understand how people can be spiritually moved by it, but hey.
We got in line for the Sistine chapel, but after maybe 2 minutes we admitted to each other that we weren't THAT interested in the first place, much less to wait 4 hours for something that I at least am in large part seeing so people don't give me shit for skipping the Sistine chapel. Besides, I was grouchy because the Pope is supposed to come out and wave on Wednesdays, but he's on holiday, so I missed it. He looks like the emperor from Star Wars anyway. The old Pope was probaly just as much of a dick as this one, but at least he LOOKED nice and benevolent.
Turns out, it took us over 5 minutes to VERY briskly walk past the rest of the line for the chapel, so good call on our part. That's at least a half mile! We lounged at the pool, and are just relaxing until we leave for Florence tomorrow. Maybe Florence and Cinque Terre will change my opinion, but so far, I am not a fan of Italy. I wouldn't come back here again for vacation. Spain is still my favorite country by far.
7/26/07-travel day to Florence
Not much to say about today, except that we traveled on a quite full coach to florence with one of the dreaded 1 1/2 hour useless stops in Orvieto. The campsite was okay, but their store was terrible and the kitchen facilities even worse. Brett walked really far in the heat to get us food. We were only in Florence for like 18 hours, so there's not much to say about it.
7/27/07-travel day to Cinque Terre
Hopped on the bus for a 4 hour bus ride to Cinque Terre, though it was actually only 2 hours or so, since we spent close to 2 hours in Pisa. It was a long stop, but it was really cool to see the famous leaning tower. I always thought it was alone but there are some really cool buildings nearby it as well.
We got on the correct local train from La Spezia, where we were dropped off, to Riomaggiore, the village we staed in. We also overheard some dumb Aussie girls talking about how they can't wait to go home so that they can wear high heels. Wow.
Our hostel is quite nice, with free laundry, kitchen, ensuite bathroom, and only 5 beds in the room. We met Nina and Allen, two extremely nice Canadians, and, strangely enough, our other roommate went to RB.
They all came later, though. We just dropped off our stuff and took the train to Monterossa, the farthest of the 5 villages, and hiked the Lover's Lane trail back to Riomaggiore. Whoever named it Lover's Lane had a lofty idea of love, because you have to really love each other to still be exchanging sappy sentiments after 12km of foot-high stairs and grueling heat. My entire back, most of my front, and the entirety of the back of my shorts were soaked. Yum. Still, it was a gorgeous hike with stunning coastal views that reminded me of the northern california coast. You hiked through vineyards and people's backyard gardens full of basil and tomatoes and squash and such. Very nice. Cooked dinner and drank a bunch while chatting politics, language, and Chinese-Taiwanese relations with the Canadians.
7/28/07-Cinque Terre
Didn't do much today, just walked around Riomaggiore, ate gelati, and hung out. Cooked again, and hung out with the Canadians, went to bed early.
7/29/07-travel day to Nice
Got up in plenty of time for the train to La Spezia, despite some dumb girls who tried to tell me that the train timetable said certain trains were the only ones running on Sundays. In fact, the timetable said which trains were extra on Sundays, ie in addition to the regular trains scheduled. But then, these girls have 8-bedroom houses at home and got their 5-month trip entirely paid for as 18th birthday presents. So.
We got to Nice just fine, and it's been interesting just how comfortable I feel being back in France, even if it's just for a night. I guess it makes ssense, but even Brett said he felt really comfortable. And! We were getting settled ino our dorm when something really cool happened. We had both taken top bunks (mine in the narrow edge of the roof slant. I literally had a maximum of 3feet clearance on the tall side, with less than a foot on the short side), and there was one bunk that looked sort of made, but also sort of rumpled. The cleaning lady came in and demanded in french who was there, and I responded that I didn't know, but that I didn't think anyone was. Then she asked me something too fast for me to catch, so I asked her to slow down. She had asked when we arrived, so I told her 5 minutes ago. It was so cool, because not only did she not automatically switch to english when she heard me speak, but I carried out a useful conversation that I had no opportunity to rehearse! I felt very accomplished.
We got canned pasta, canned pears and peaches, and hot pockets for dinner, along with two bottles of local rose. Speaking of wine, I now have ammunition against anyone who gives me shit about putting ice in my wine, because I saw a group of 6 or 7 french people calmly putting ice in their wine. Voila! Instant justification.
After a quick shower (also cold, since otherwise the shower tried to scald me occasionally), we went to bed.
7/30/07-Travel day
Well, the day started so-so, and had it's ups and downs all day long. We began with a guy still drunk from last night running to catch the bus as his friend ran up and down the aisle screaming at the driver to stop and pick him up. They got him on board, but he was still so out of it that he couldn't even find his passport. Less than 5 minutes later, the driver rolled into the bumper of a car at a stop sign, so we had to stop and exchange info, etc.
Luckily, shortly afterward, we stopped in Eze for the only onus stop I've really enjoyed so far. We took a tour of the Fragonard perfume factory, tested some perfumes, and Brett got me this awesome perfume (real parfum, not eau de toilett) that smells a lot like strawberries. He also got one for himself that is awesome, a mandarin spicy scent. Yum. Mine's called 'juste un baiser' or 'just a kiss' and his is called 'diamant.' I told him that I'd turn him into an effeminate frenchman yet.
However, things took a turn for the worse several hours later, when the bus broke down on the freeway. We only narrowly avoided being towed and ticketed by the incredibly over-zealous Italian police. I think they're just mad that they have pansy-ish fuschia stripes on their pants. Anyway, thanks to a passenger who spoke Italian, 200€ to get us off the road, and a fortuitously passing empty Contiki bus, we were on our way again after oly 2-3 hours on the side of the road. When I say passing I mean that the bus was about 200 km away when we called. But at least we are back on the road, and should be only about 3 hours late getting in.
Sigh. Anyway, yesterday was 8 weeks away, with only 5 more to go. We also found out Kudra is staying with Ann for the rest of the summer because the backyard is getting done! That's super incredibly awesome! I'm really excited to see what it looks like when it's all finished!
Thursday, July 12, 2007
eeeps - Radio Silence alert!!
Ok so internet is super expensive here in Italy and I'm going to Croatia for a week, so this is a heads up for radio silence and lack of updating for at least a week. I am not dead or injured or anything, just not quite able to get to internet, I'd bet, in Croatia.
Monday, July 9, 2007
Today we woke up and it was raining. Rar. We went out anyway to Hugendubel, the bookstore that has an english-language section, and got some new books. I convinced Brett to read A Prayer for Owen Meany, one of my favorite John Irving novels, and also to get Bel Canto (Ann Patchett) which is also fantastic. I'm so excited that he's really starting to enjoy reading, because I have so many many recommendations for books he should read! I bought a collection of Margaret Atwood's writing, and a collection of David Sedaris pieces to read in Croatia after I finish the last few pages of Harry Potter 1 in french. Someone today thought that I was reading the new one. As if the new one would be this short!!
It rained alllllll dayyyyyyyy today, a steady rain that good southern californians like us just can't quite believe in, even when we're out in it getting soaked. We were going to go to Hofbrauhaus, but it's farrrrr so we hung around and read for some hours and ate pizza at the corner pizza place which is actually pretty good.
Given the weather, I'm happy to be leaving for Venice tomorrow morning!
It rained alllllll dayyyyyyyy today, a steady rain that good southern californians like us just can't quite believe in, even when we're out in it getting soaked. We were going to go to Hofbrauhaus, but it's farrrrr so we hung around and read for some hours and ate pizza at the corner pizza place which is actually pretty good.
Given the weather, I'm happy to be leaving for Venice tomorrow morning!
7/8 - Munich
Today we went on the free walking tour offered by the hostel, after a really fantastic 4Euro all-you-can-eat breakfast at the hostel. This place is pretty damn nice, aside from the creepy guy in the bunk below me.
The tour wasn't as nice as the tour in Paris, but it was still informational, and we saw most of the big sights of Munich, including the disappointing glockenspiel. We also went to Frauenkirche, which has a funny story about the devil getting mad because of people weaseling out of a contract with him, and he stamped his foot and supposedly until WWII destroyed everything there was a huge hoofprint in the church, but now it's just a human footprint.
The Surfer Wave in the Englischer Garten is really cool, if a little disappointing to a san diegan, but still kinda cool. There was also an annoying girl from San Diego claiming that we have bars with surf waves in them. Maybe I'm just uninformed, but my impression is that she was just treating urban legend like fact when talking to people who by all indications will never go to San Diego and therefore find out that she was mistaken.
Lots of naked, sunbathing germans showing off 50 years of a good bavarian diet. Yum.
The Englischer Gartens are huggggge, 1 mile wide by 5 miles long. It's really quite immense. But they're very nice, with huge chestnut trees and a river and large lawns that you aren't supposed to walk across even though there are people lying all over them.
Brett and I enjoyed some currywurst, sauerkraut, and another ginormous pretzel together, along with some large glasses of Weissbeer. About halfway through our second liter, though, it started pouring, so Brett gave me his raincoat and we hustled the very long distance back to the hostel without a map in the rain. Yay. It was an adventure, for sure.
Went to bed fairly early, but then a billion people came in and decided that since they hadn't bothered to make their beds earlier and since everyone in the room was already asleep that that was a good time to make their beds, have conversations, turn lights on and off, get on and off the bunks, take showers, comb their hair while staring contemplatively out the window, etc. Grr.
The tour wasn't as nice as the tour in Paris, but it was still informational, and we saw most of the big sights of Munich, including the disappointing glockenspiel. We also went to Frauenkirche, which has a funny story about the devil getting mad because of people weaseling out of a contract with him, and he stamped his foot and supposedly until WWII destroyed everything there was a huge hoofprint in the church, but now it's just a human footprint.
The Surfer Wave in the Englischer Garten is really cool, if a little disappointing to a san diegan, but still kinda cool. There was also an annoying girl from San Diego claiming that we have bars with surf waves in them. Maybe I'm just uninformed, but my impression is that she was just treating urban legend like fact when talking to people who by all indications will never go to San Diego and therefore find out that she was mistaken.
Lots of naked, sunbathing germans showing off 50 years of a good bavarian diet. Yum.
The Englischer Gartens are huggggge, 1 mile wide by 5 miles long. It's really quite immense. But they're very nice, with huge chestnut trees and a river and large lawns that you aren't supposed to walk across even though there are people lying all over them.
Brett and I enjoyed some currywurst, sauerkraut, and another ginormous pretzel together, along with some large glasses of Weissbeer. About halfway through our second liter, though, it started pouring, so Brett gave me his raincoat and we hustled the very long distance back to the hostel without a map in the rain. Yay. It was an adventure, for sure.
Went to bed fairly early, but then a billion people came in and decided that since they hadn't bothered to make their beds earlier and since everyone in the room was already asleep that that was a good time to make their beds, have conversations, turn lights on and off, get on and off the bunks, take showers, comb their hair while staring contemplatively out the window, etc. Grr.
Sunday, July 8, 2007
7/7 - Travel Day
Talked to my mom today after trying to call her and dad yesterday and getting nobody. Luckily I got to talk to Shannon for a while until her phone cut out the second time... given that the first minute of a call costs 60 cents, I decided it was time to give up. It was a phone call abyss.
the Lauterbrunnen to Munich bus ride is super short but they drag it out by stopping in Lucerne and Liechtenstein for no reason. But I did get my passport stamped in Liechtenstein, which is cool.
In Munich, we got checked in, then went out to the Paulaner Garten for a liter of beer and truly massive pretzel with sweet mustard. YUmmmm.
It's weird being in a country, finally, that I have absolutely no familiarity or facility with. It's a bit stressful. Plus, there are a lot more Americans in Munich, so far, than in any other place so far, including Dublin.
the Lauterbrunnen to Munich bus ride is super short but they drag it out by stopping in Lucerne and Liechtenstein for no reason. But I did get my passport stamped in Liechtenstein, which is cool.
In Munich, we got checked in, then went out to the Paulaner Garten for a liter of beer and truly massive pretzel with sweet mustard. YUmmmm.
It's weird being in a country, finally, that I have absolutely no familiarity or facility with. It's a bit stressful. Plus, there are a lot more Americans in Munich, so far, than in any other place so far, including Dublin.
7/6 - Lauterbrunnen
Today we didn't do much, just spent hours doing laundry and went for a walk towards Stechelberg. That's it....
7/5 - Lauterbrunnen
Today we got up really really early for the train up to Junfraujoch - the Top of Europe. Home of the highest altitude train station, restaurant, post office, and bathroom in Europe. It was storming, so you couldn't see much but blowing snow. It was also -7.8 degrees celsius with 48km/hr winds. And we went outside. Don't ask me why. There was also a cool ice palace carved into the glacier, and you could actually see the glacier. It was really cool.
The train ride itself was really cool, with amazing views of the Lauterbrunnen valley, which has 72 waterfalls, one of which is Staubbach falls, a 300 meter waterfall (the tallest in Europe) and which was RIGHT NEXT TO our campsite. There's also Trummelbach falls, which is a glacial waterfall with tunnels where you can see it falling through the glacier, but we'll see that next time through.
Hung out, then went to the Bomb Shelter, which is the campsite bar. It really is a bomb shelter, they just converted it to a bar/club where all the Contiki people go to drink and negotiate sleeping arrangements. Lots of Aussie music, which Adam will agree sucks. Seriously, all these Aussies singing loudly along with a Queen song that I'm certain has never been played in the states.
Also, they have a fun shot of a little bottle of red bull liqueur where you unscrew the cap, lick it, stick it on your forehead, bang the bottle on the bar while yelling PROOOOOOOSSSSSST!!! then take the bottle in your teeth, drink it without hands, then take the cap off your head and try to spit it into a target. If you make it, you get a free one.
The train ride itself was really cool, with amazing views of the Lauterbrunnen valley, which has 72 waterfalls, one of which is Staubbach falls, a 300 meter waterfall (the tallest in Europe) and which was RIGHT NEXT TO our campsite. There's also Trummelbach falls, which is a glacial waterfall with tunnels where you can see it falling through the glacier, but we'll see that next time through.
Hung out, then went to the Bomb Shelter, which is the campsite bar. It really is a bomb shelter, they just converted it to a bar/club where all the Contiki people go to drink and negotiate sleeping arrangements. Lots of Aussie music, which Adam will agree sucks. Seriously, all these Aussies singing loudly along with a Queen song that I'm certain has never been played in the states.
Also, they have a fun shot of a little bottle of red bull liqueur where you unscrew the cap, lick it, stick it on your forehead, bang the bottle on the bar while yelling PROOOOOOOSSSSSST!!! then take the bottle in your teeth, drink it without hands, then take the cap off your head and try to spit it into a target. If you make it, you get a free one.
7/4 - Travel Day
On our country's birthday we traveled from Paris to Lauterbrunnen. A bit anticlimactic, given that everyone else was partying at home.
Only really exciting thing that happened on the ride was that at the service stop there was a big line for the bathroom (of course). So when a stall opened up, I went right for it, only to discover that it was A SQUAT TOILET!!! I turned right back around and went out to Brett and said, "fuck that, I'm not using a squat toilet!!" only to discover that that was the ONLY toilet in the bathroom like that. arg.
When we got to Lauterbrunnen I was just stunnnnned by how beautiful it is here! The campsite is gorgeous, and a really nice place to stay. Plus the lady dumped a handful of swiss chocolate in my hand when I checked in. My kind of place.
Only really exciting thing that happened on the ride was that at the service stop there was a big line for the bathroom (of course). So when a stall opened up, I went right for it, only to discover that it was A SQUAT TOILET!!! I turned right back around and went out to Brett and said, "fuck that, I'm not using a squat toilet!!" only to discover that that was the ONLY toilet in the bathroom like that. arg.
When we got to Lauterbrunnen I was just stunnnnned by how beautiful it is here! The campsite is gorgeous, and a really nice place to stay. Plus the lady dumped a handful of swiss chocolate in my hand when I checked in. My kind of place.
pictureeeeees
okay kids I know I suck recently but here's a TON of pictures to make up for it.
Bordeaux, Paris, Lauterbrunnen, and some from first day in Munich. Updates in full soon. Enjoy!
remember: www.flickr.com/photos/brettgphoto
Bordeaux, Paris, Lauterbrunnen, and some from first day in Munich. Updates in full soon. Enjoy!
remember: www.flickr.com/photos/brettgphoto
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
7/3 - Paris
Today I woke up and it was raining. Really raining, not San Diego raining. We decided, therefore, not to go to Notre Dame and take pictures, but to go to the Musee D'Orsay, which I think I would really enjoy because my favorite type of art is Impressionism, and that's what the Musee D'Orsay is all about. Unfortunately, we were well and truly SOAKED by the time we got to the museum, only to find a truly massive line. We decided to head back to the hostel and hope that we got there before lockout. It was really pouring, and we barely managed to get into our room 10 minutes before lockout, with her grouchy "well, you can't stay in there!" ringing in our ears. We changed out of our wet clothes and got snacks and went to try to occupy ourselves until we could get back in our room. Later we got some soup and bread, then saw some clearish sky and went to make sure we know how to get to our hostel tomorrow morning, discovering that there was an internet cafe right next to it.
I checked the weather for the next 10 days or so in each place we're going and the outlook is not good. It's supposed to be at least cloudy and at least have a chance of rain in Lauterbrunnen, Munich and Venice. Blech.
I checked the weather for the next 10 days or so in each place we're going and the outlook is not good. It's supposed to be at least cloudy and at least have a chance of rain in Lauterbrunnen, Munich and Venice. Blech.
7/2 - Paris
Woke up this morning at 8am feeling like crap. Not nauseous or headachy, just tiiiiired. Brett had to drag me out of bed to go to our 11am free walking tour that started on Ile-de-la-Cite. I'm really glad we did, because the guide was really great, and it was the only wholly good group experience we've had so far. The tour was 3 1/2 hours of walking, so we were pretty tired when it was over, so we got groceries and made ravioli and green beens with diced tomatoes. The kitchen really sucks at this hostel, in that there are no saucepans, only gigantic pots, one "sharp" knife which is tiny and not at all sharp, no towels, no cooking utensils, and in the "clean" utensil area there was a butter knife with old peanut butter all over it so I had to wash everything we used because I didn't trust it. And then once I washed it it stayed wet because there were no towels. Sigh. Our food was really good, though.
While I'm on this subject, let me list the things that are awful about 3 Ducks Hostel. First of all, there's only one key per room, so apparently you get the key from reception when you come in (and by the way, reception is A BAR) and then if you're the last person in your room to leave you lock the door and give the key back to reception. Very annoying. There is also a lockout that is not disclosed when you reserve your rooms every day from noon to 4 pm supposedly for cleaning, which completely sucks. In addition, the bathrooms consist of 3 outdoor toilet stalls and two outdoor shower stalls. They're enclosed, but still. They're in the courtyard where everyone congregates, like the common area, so if you go in you have to maneuver around people to get there. There are a couple bathrooms upstairs, but when I tried to use one during lockout today the cleaning lady who was sitting chatting on the steps gave me a ration of shit in french about how those bathrooms were only for the people upstairs. The thing is, when we got back today, a guy was pulling the wreckage of the wall between one toilet and one shower, so there's in fact only 2 toilets and 1 shower for everyone downstairs, one of which broke later in the evening. Anyway. She yells at me in french, grabs my hand and leads (drags) me to one of the downstairs bathrooms, opens the door, and points and says "THIS is where YOU go." I was super pissed. And it's not over. Also there are cracks and drafts in the door so you can't shut sound out, and the bar and patio where everyone hangs out is literally - I swear literally - less than 10 feet from the doors of the rooms.
It's supposed to be one of the best hostels in Europe, but in fact it's so bad that we wanted to switch hostels until we discovered the no refund policy. Luckily we leave early tomorrow morning.
ANYWAY. After lunch we went out to the Louvre, where we saw the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, and some super cool greek sculptures before they closed and we had to leave. Then we walked down the Champs Elyseesm which is much longer than I realized and very very crowded, to the Arc de Triomphe. Place Charles de Gaulle, which surrounds the Arc itself, is this huge crazy roundabout where there's an accident every 6 minutes. They don't even let pedestrians cross it, they just built a tunnel under it so you can walk around under the arc, which is truly massive. It really looms over the champs elysees, even over the trees lining it and the inexplicable grandstands that are being erected at the moment. It's rather intimidating, not very celebratory. We were exhausted from all the walking, so we didn't go up for the view, but went back to the hostel, got some snacks, and then tried to occupy ourselves until bedtime. It was so loud when we finally went to bed that we couldn't really sleep, so we didn't exactly sleep well.
While I'm on this subject, let me list the things that are awful about 3 Ducks Hostel. First of all, there's only one key per room, so apparently you get the key from reception when you come in (and by the way, reception is A BAR) and then if you're the last person in your room to leave you lock the door and give the key back to reception. Very annoying. There is also a lockout that is not disclosed when you reserve your rooms every day from noon to 4 pm supposedly for cleaning, which completely sucks. In addition, the bathrooms consist of 3 outdoor toilet stalls and two outdoor shower stalls. They're enclosed, but still. They're in the courtyard where everyone congregates, like the common area, so if you go in you have to maneuver around people to get there. There are a couple bathrooms upstairs, but when I tried to use one during lockout today the cleaning lady who was sitting chatting on the steps gave me a ration of shit in french about how those bathrooms were only for the people upstairs. The thing is, when we got back today, a guy was pulling the wreckage of the wall between one toilet and one shower, so there's in fact only 2 toilets and 1 shower for everyone downstairs, one of which broke later in the evening. Anyway. She yells at me in french, grabs my hand and leads (drags) me to one of the downstairs bathrooms, opens the door, and points and says "THIS is where YOU go." I was super pissed. And it's not over. Also there are cracks and drafts in the door so you can't shut sound out, and the bar and patio where everyone hangs out is literally - I swear literally - less than 10 feet from the doors of the rooms.
It's supposed to be one of the best hostels in Europe, but in fact it's so bad that we wanted to switch hostels until we discovered the no refund policy. Luckily we leave early tomorrow morning.
ANYWAY. After lunch we went out to the Louvre, where we saw the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Venus de Milo, the Mona Lisa, and some super cool greek sculptures before they closed and we had to leave. Then we walked down the Champs Elyseesm which is much longer than I realized and very very crowded, to the Arc de Triomphe. Place Charles de Gaulle, which surrounds the Arc itself, is this huge crazy roundabout where there's an accident every 6 minutes. They don't even let pedestrians cross it, they just built a tunnel under it so you can walk around under the arc, which is truly massive. It really looms over the champs elysees, even over the trees lining it and the inexplicable grandstands that are being erected at the moment. It's rather intimidating, not very celebratory. We were exhausted from all the walking, so we didn't go up for the view, but went back to the hostel, got some snacks, and then tried to occupy ourselves until bedtime. It was so loud when we finally went to bed that we couldn't really sleep, so we didn't exactly sleep well.
7/1 - Travel Day!
We didn't have to get up too early for our bus today, since it's the second stop on this leg for Busabout - we just needed to be ready by 11:30 for the bus. We had a guide that we've had before, so the trip was nice, with hardly anybody on the bus. Brett and I once again each had a row to ourselves.
We got stuck in some truly horrendous traffic at a checkpoint 40 km from Paris, but hardly any traffic coming in, so we were only an hour late. Brett and I had researched our metro needs to get to our hostel before we left, so we found our metro station and our hostel and were all checked in by 11:30.
As we drove into the city we passed the famous rose window at Notre Dame, and I swear I've never been so affected by something famous in person in my life. I was so excited!! Then we saw a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower! It was just getting dark as we came in around 10:30 or 11, and the Eiffel tower is all lit up starting at 8pm every night, and every hour for 10 minutes it GLITTERS. Yes folks, it glitters. and it just so happened that right as we passed between buildings and could see it, it GLITTERED!! I'm normally a skeptic about gasps of awe, but I must admit one escaped my mouth in unison with everyone else's.
The first thing we did once we were checked in was buy 3 Heineken tallboys and 2 bottles of pink wine with twist tops and marched over to the Eiffel Tower, a longer walk from the hostel than advertised. It started glittering for the midnight glitter when we were about 5 minutes away, but we got there at the base in plenty of time to gape at it for quite some time before it stopped. It was truly amazing. I thought Notre Dame affected me, but the Eiffel Tower just froze me in place. I knew it was big but it's impossibly huge and enormous and crazy in person. My favorite thing was staring at the glittering lights until I could shut my eyes and see the tower in after-images on my eyelids. There was also this crazy optical illusion when you look at just the bottom level where it seems like the lights are all speeding up.
It was midnight and really cold and windy, and I was just wearing capris and a tank top, so we tried to hide from the wind and the men selling light-up eiffel towers but it was impossible so while we waited for the 1 am glitter I drank to keep warm. It seemed to work because by the time 1am rolled around I wasn't nearly so cold! At 1am they turn off the other lights on the tower and it's only lit by the glittering ones, which is really cool.
After that Brett and I stumbled back after getting a bit lost and needing to ask for directions in french.
We got stuck in some truly horrendous traffic at a checkpoint 40 km from Paris, but hardly any traffic coming in, so we were only an hour late. Brett and I had researched our metro needs to get to our hostel before we left, so we found our metro station and our hostel and were all checked in by 11:30.
As we drove into the city we passed the famous rose window at Notre Dame, and I swear I've never been so affected by something famous in person in my life. I was so excited!! Then we saw a glimpse of the Eiffel Tower! It was just getting dark as we came in around 10:30 or 11, and the Eiffel tower is all lit up starting at 8pm every night, and every hour for 10 minutes it GLITTERS. Yes folks, it glitters. and it just so happened that right as we passed between buildings and could see it, it GLITTERED!! I'm normally a skeptic about gasps of awe, but I must admit one escaped my mouth in unison with everyone else's.
The first thing we did once we were checked in was buy 3 Heineken tallboys and 2 bottles of pink wine with twist tops and marched over to the Eiffel Tower, a longer walk from the hostel than advertised. It started glittering for the midnight glitter when we were about 5 minutes away, but we got there at the base in plenty of time to gape at it for quite some time before it stopped. It was truly amazing. I thought Notre Dame affected me, but the Eiffel Tower just froze me in place. I knew it was big but it's impossibly huge and enormous and crazy in person. My favorite thing was staring at the glittering lights until I could shut my eyes and see the tower in after-images on my eyelids. There was also this crazy optical illusion when you look at just the bottom level where it seems like the lights are all speeding up.
It was midnight and really cold and windy, and I was just wearing capris and a tank top, so we tried to hide from the wind and the men selling light-up eiffel towers but it was impossible so while we waited for the 1 am glitter I drank to keep warm. It seemed to work because by the time 1am rolled around I wasn't nearly so cold! At 1am they turn off the other lights on the tower and it's only lit by the glittering ones, which is really cool.
After that Brett and I stumbled back after getting a bit lost and needing to ask for directions in french.
6/30 - Bordeaux
Our last day in Bordeaux we followed our tradition here and didn't do much, got up at noon, did laundry (the dry cycle only took 15 min!!), and wandered around. Tried to find ice cream in the evening, but despite its ubiquitousness the rest of the time, we couldn't find any shops. Lame.
It's been nice not to share a room or a bathroom with anybody, but it would have been nice to have a common room or a kitchen. Also, there was seriously a drunken French party across the way, and drunken french men were yelling about Napoli at 1 in the morning. This, after someone called reception on us the first night for talking in normal voices in our room.
It's been nice not to share a room or a bathroom with anybody, but it would have been nice to have a common room or a kitchen. Also, there was seriously a drunken French party across the way, and drunken french men were yelling about Napoli at 1 in the morning. This, after someone called reception on us the first night for talking in normal voices in our room.
7/3 - Paris
Don't have much time on this infernal kiosk, but Paris amazing when it isn't raining and awful when it is.
Don't ever stay at the 3 Ducks. We tried to switch hostels, but no availability.
I'll update more some other day.
Today Kudra turned 4 and we weren't there for it. :(
Don't ever stay at the 3 Ducks. We tried to switch hostels, but no availability.
I'll update more some other day.
Today Kudra turned 4 and we weren't there for it. :(
Sunday, July 1, 2007
6/29 - Bordeaux
Got up at noon today, something I haven't done pretty much since middle school maybe? Then we took a really long walk to go to this recommended bakery down near the Place de la Victoire (apparently you aren't a European city if you don't have a Victory Square). I got a beignet avec chocolat, but to my delight and surprise, when they said 'beignet' they meant 'best donut of your life', and when they said 'chocolat' they meant 'nutellla'!! Brett's was raspberry. Mine was soooooooo good. Then we had kebab. I was still a lil too full from my donut extravaganza to finish mine, but they were very good, and cheaaap! Then we found out that international postage in France is .85 each, which sucks because it was cheaper in San Sebastian but we forgot to send our SS postcards from there so we have 15 postcards to send. Even worse, the machine only takes coins. At least the Euro has 1 and 2 Euro coins.... But they really kind of demand exact change in France, and give you nasty looks if you don't have it.
Also, on every receipt they have the conversion to Francs. They've been on the Euro for something like 5 years and still? They did it to pesos or whatever it was in Spain, too.
Later we went on another walk to the Miroir d'eau, which is this really large, flat, shallow pool that fills up with water that reflects the sky and the buildings nearby. Then after like 10 min, it drains, and about 5 min after that it blows fine mist all over itself like a smoke machine was going off. Then it stops and 5 min later it starts filling up again. So cool. It's also a bit like a kiddy pool on summer nights and weekends, because the beach is 45 min away in Arcachon, so lots of kids and dogs and even adults wander around in it since it's only like an inch high.
Drank a bunch of pink wine then went back for more kebab, and they brought us, I swear, the best tea ever - for free! I went up and told them (in french) that I spoke french really badly but I wanted to know what was in the tea because it was amazing. They kind of snickered when I said my french was bad, like 'yeah we know' but they were really nice and explained everything to me. Apparently it's just loose leaf green tea with mint leaves and sugar. I bet they muddle the mint leaves though.
Also, on every receipt they have the conversion to Francs. They've been on the Euro for something like 5 years and still? They did it to pesos or whatever it was in Spain, too.
Later we went on another walk to the Miroir d'eau, which is this really large, flat, shallow pool that fills up with water that reflects the sky and the buildings nearby. Then after like 10 min, it drains, and about 5 min after that it blows fine mist all over itself like a smoke machine was going off. Then it stops and 5 min later it starts filling up again. So cool. It's also a bit like a kiddy pool on summer nights and weekends, because the beach is 45 min away in Arcachon, so lots of kids and dogs and even adults wander around in it since it's only like an inch high.
Drank a bunch of pink wine then went back for more kebab, and they brought us, I swear, the best tea ever - for free! I went up and told them (in french) that I spoke french really badly but I wanted to know what was in the tea because it was amazing. They kind of snickered when I said my french was bad, like 'yeah we know' but they were really nice and explained everything to me. Apparently it's just loose leaf green tea with mint leaves and sugar. I bet they muddle the mint leaves though.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
6/28 - Bordeaux
We were going to go to St Emilion today, but it's an expensive train ride, so we decided to sleep in and walk around town. We took some great pictures that will be uploaded someday. Bordeaux is a really quiet town, one that's kind of boring if you don't have the car or money to go to the wine chateaux, but I think it would be a really nice place to live since it's not crowded or dirty like a lot of other places we've been.
Went to Place de Girondins, with a fountain and statues that were taken for use in the war by the Nazis when they occupied Bordeaux, and were only restored a few decades ago. Really nice
The weather has been better, no more rain, at least, and I picked up the first Harry Potter in french and have worked through 9 or 10 pages. Not exactly up to my normal pace, but it's in a different language, so hey. I do think it will really help, though. I took a nap while reading this afternoon and dreamt all in french.
Brett and I have been sleeping a lot here. I think we're just catching up from all the short nights and bad sleep we've gotten in shitty beds with useless pillows up till now.
All pictures up till leaving for Bordeaux are up at www.flickr.com/photo/brettgphoto, so check it out!
Went to Place de Girondins, with a fountain and statues that were taken for use in the war by the Nazis when they occupied Bordeaux, and were only restored a few decades ago. Really nice
The weather has been better, no more rain, at least, and I picked up the first Harry Potter in french and have worked through 9 or 10 pages. Not exactly up to my normal pace, but it's in a different language, so hey. I do think it will really help, though. I took a nap while reading this afternoon and dreamt all in french.
Brett and I have been sleeping a lot here. I think we're just catching up from all the short nights and bad sleep we've gotten in shitty beds with useless pillows up till now.
All pictures up till leaving for Bordeaux are up at www.flickr.com/photo/brettgphoto, so check it out!
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
6/27: Bordeaux
OK look, international people. It`s ok if you want to do things differently than the US, but please at least make your keyboards the same!!! Spain was bad enough, with accents and shit where other things are supposed to be, but this, this unchecked agression will not stand, man. The Q is where the A is supposed to be, the comma and question mark qre on the same button that is where the M is supposed to be, this situation is fucked. It sounds petty, but really think about trying to type normal speed with these differences. Jesus.
Bus ride was super short and the Australians only came home from their night out around 7:30 am when the bus leaves at 8, so they had a fun ride of it going all the way to Paris, I`m sure. We`re all checked in in our lovely private room with private bathroom. You forget how NICE it is to have your own space until you spend almost a month without it, and I almost hope the weather stays bad so we can hide in our room and enjoy it. Just kidding.
We had lunch and then took a nap, and now the plan is to find Bordeaux postcards and a bizzillion stamps because we lagged on sending the San Sebastian postcards, and then also I want to find Harry Potter 1 in french and read that. Brett found a book at our hostel in San Sebastian that he really likes by Tom Wolfe, so I can read in french and he`ll read Tom Wolfe.
It`s really crazy to be in France and needing to use my french in real conversation. I can`t remember the word for computer, either, so I need to look that up bigtime.
Bus ride was super short and the Australians only came home from their night out around 7:30 am when the bus leaves at 8, so they had a fun ride of it going all the way to Paris, I`m sure. We`re all checked in in our lovely private room with private bathroom. You forget how NICE it is to have your own space until you spend almost a month without it, and I almost hope the weather stays bad so we can hide in our room and enjoy it. Just kidding.
We had lunch and then took a nap, and now the plan is to find Bordeaux postcards and a bizzillion stamps because we lagged on sending the San Sebastian postcards, and then also I want to find Harry Potter 1 in french and read that. Brett found a book at our hostel in San Sebastian that he really likes by Tom Wolfe, so I can read in french and he`ll read Tom Wolfe.
It`s really crazy to be in France and needing to use my french in real conversation. I can`t remember the word for computer, either, so I need to look that up bigtime.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
6/26 - San Sebastian
Dude. Seriously. This fucking raining bullshit needs to stop. The poor Australians are super hungover, but Brett and I feel fantastic, so we had some breakfast (the last spaghetti alla cecci leftovers) and are pondering the mystery of our missing sandwiches. I think someone stole them, the bastards.
We walked around a little bit, and we´re just sort of killing time tonight. We leave for Bordeaux tomorrow morning, so we can´t get too trashed or anything tonight, but there´s really nothing else to do in San Sebastian when it´s raining.
I do know that I´m very glad that I´ve only gotten hung over twice so far in over 3 weeks. There´ve been some pretty big nights out, but I´m a champion, I guess.
I also do feel that I´ve made it through/past my first wall. The first few days here I was feeling really overwhelmed by this trip and how long I still am going to be gone, but I´m feeling much much better about it right now. I´m excited and having a great time, so things are gooooood.
We walked around a little bit, and we´re just sort of killing time tonight. We leave for Bordeaux tomorrow morning, so we can´t get too trashed or anything tonight, but there´s really nothing else to do in San Sebastian when it´s raining.
I do know that I´m very glad that I´ve only gotten hung over twice so far in over 3 weeks. There´ve been some pretty big nights out, but I´m a champion, I guess.
I also do feel that I´ve made it through/past my first wall. The first few days here I was feeling really overwhelmed by this trip and how long I still am going to be gone, but I´m feeling much much better about it right now. I´m excited and having a great time, so things are gooooood.
6/25 - San Sebastian
Dude. The weather fucking sucks. It rained today and so all Brett and I did was make sandwiches, then go get junk food and wine and coke and had a calimocho/junk food party with our two Australian roommates, Brooke and Kirby. They´re super cool, and they´re coming to the west coast in October, so we told them they could stay with us if they come down from LA. By 6 or 7 we were all pretty far along (a liter of wine each will do that to you), and we decided to go out for cider and curried rice (soooo goooood oh man) and some really amazing mushroom pintxos. Then we, um, went back to the hostel and found some apparently abandoned vodka and rum and had rum and cokes and screwdrivers, then went back out. I´m not sure when Brett and I decided to come home, but the girls stayed out until quite late, and sometime in the middle of the night they came home and there was a complicated episode with puking and the cleaning up of puke and the spraying of perfume so the room didn´t reek of puke, only of perfume and wow let me tell you it reeked of Yves St. Laurent. I´m just happy I didn´t stay out, because I really wouldn´t want to be the one having all those issues in a hostel.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
6/24: San Sebastian
After I posted yesterday, we went out to go see the much-talked about bonfires. It turned out to be a mini-bonfire party for the kids last night. Heaps of kids ages 7-15 or so were burning their schoolbooks on the beaches in celebration of the end of the school year. I guess they do this because they won´t be allowed to go to the big bonfire celebrations they have tonight for Summer Solstice. Apparently they even have a bonfire in their Plaza Mayor, which used to be a bull-ring.
This morning we had toast and fruit for breakfast, then got directions to Monte Iguelda, the other little mini-mountain around here. It´s a nice walk along the two main beaches here, except that the boardwalk was super packed because there was a triathlon going on this morning. So it was a bit of work making our way through the throngs of people. Once we got near the mountain where the funicular (old-timey train) starts, it got less hectic, though. After a bit of hunting, we found what seemed to be the pedestrian path, and by path I mean walk along the side of the street as it winds up the mountain and hope not to get creamed by the expensive cars and dinky mopeds whizzing around the turns. Eek. It´s a bit of a walk even from our hostel to the base of the hill, and it´s a fair walk up a fairly steep incline to get to the top, but the views are incredible, and the coastline is really amazing. It´s a lot of very green cliffs and such, with deep blue ocean and seagulls floating around. The coastline actually reminds me a lot of northern california, weirdly enough. We got to the top, where there´s an amusement park, but we weren´t planning to go in, so we just turned around and came back.
We had waited too long to buy wine for lunch, given that it´s sunday and goddamn everything closes on sundays, but one of the guys that works in the hostel helped us out buying bottles of local cider takeaway from a restaurant. For lunch we had a huge salad with onion and tomato and avocado and homemade vinaigrette and baguette and two bottles of cider. Then we took a nap until the newest crop of busabout people turned up and made a huge ruckus and left the door to our room open to the common room so it was super loud, so we got up and came here.
Later we´ll be going to the real bonfires, hopefully taking some nice pictures. I´m trying to upload our pictures at the moment, but it´s seriously taking forrreeevvverrr. I´ve been online now for 45 minutes and it has not uploaded a single picture. Fuck this lack of high-speed internet.
This morning we had toast and fruit for breakfast, then got directions to Monte Iguelda, the other little mini-mountain around here. It´s a nice walk along the two main beaches here, except that the boardwalk was super packed because there was a triathlon going on this morning. So it was a bit of work making our way through the throngs of people. Once we got near the mountain where the funicular (old-timey train) starts, it got less hectic, though. After a bit of hunting, we found what seemed to be the pedestrian path, and by path I mean walk along the side of the street as it winds up the mountain and hope not to get creamed by the expensive cars and dinky mopeds whizzing around the turns. Eek. It´s a bit of a walk even from our hostel to the base of the hill, and it´s a fair walk up a fairly steep incline to get to the top, but the views are incredible, and the coastline is really amazing. It´s a lot of very green cliffs and such, with deep blue ocean and seagulls floating around. The coastline actually reminds me a lot of northern california, weirdly enough. We got to the top, where there´s an amusement park, but we weren´t planning to go in, so we just turned around and came back.
We had waited too long to buy wine for lunch, given that it´s sunday and goddamn everything closes on sundays, but one of the guys that works in the hostel helped us out buying bottles of local cider takeaway from a restaurant. For lunch we had a huge salad with onion and tomato and avocado and homemade vinaigrette and baguette and two bottles of cider. Then we took a nap until the newest crop of busabout people turned up and made a huge ruckus and left the door to our room open to the common room so it was super loud, so we got up and came here.
Later we´ll be going to the real bonfires, hopefully taking some nice pictures. I´m trying to upload our pictures at the moment, but it´s seriously taking forrreeevvverrr. I´ve been online now for 45 minutes and it has not uploaded a single picture. Fuck this lack of high-speed internet.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
hot, fresh pics!
We uploaded 30 or so of our 50 photos from the last few days at a ridiculously slow rate at a ridiculously priced internet cafe. Please enjoy our efforts.
(also notice the fashionable watch (aka room key) in the madrid pictures)
(also notice the fashionable watch (aka room key) in the madrid pictures)
6/23: San Sebastian
Got up around 10:30 this morning since the church bells nearby had decided to go crazy and just chime out of tune renditions of nothing at useless intervals. We decided to go buy some fruit and go for a walk, so to that end we located a fruit stand and bought peaches and bananas. Went to the tourist office for a map and after some consultation we decided to walk up to the Sacred Heart statue on the top of Monte Urgull. To get there we walked along the ocean (far above the actual water, on a sidewalk, kind of like right above La Jolla Cove), which was absolutely gorgeous. The water here reminds me of Hawaii, or the Virgin Islands, with that deep azure in the distance the icy pale blue where it foams and froths at the rocks. It reminded me particularly of Hawaii because a lot of waves kept crashing and spraying on the rocks. The gentle waves of the Mediterranean this is not.
We walked up Monte Urgull, which turned out to be a rather rigorous uphill hike. The scenery was absolutely stunning, with great views of the sea, the small islands in the bay, and very green green green on the hill itself. The view from the top is really fantastic as well, and we sat and ate our fruit and looked around before heading down the other way so we could see new sights on our way down. Apparently we chose the long, hard way to go up the hill, because this was much shorter and less difficult, but oh well.
We were hungry, so we finished our seaside walk and got provisions for Spaghetti alla Cecci and went back to the hostel for home-made calimocho and home-cooked food. It´s so hard to cook and not be homesick, but at the same time it helps us not be homesick. It will be nice, however, to cook with our own stuff, like our knives and pots and pans and acres of counter space. Oh, how I miss you, counter space!
After lunch we walked around a bit and had ice cream again (for which I refuse to feel bad), and now we´re blogging and uploading pictures which is taking forrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So. Expect a pic update soon.
We walked up Monte Urgull, which turned out to be a rather rigorous uphill hike. The scenery was absolutely stunning, with great views of the sea, the small islands in the bay, and very green green green on the hill itself. The view from the top is really fantastic as well, and we sat and ate our fruit and looked around before heading down the other way so we could see new sights on our way down. Apparently we chose the long, hard way to go up the hill, because this was much shorter and less difficult, but oh well.
We were hungry, so we finished our seaside walk and got provisions for Spaghetti alla Cecci and went back to the hostel for home-made calimocho and home-cooked food. It´s so hard to cook and not be homesick, but at the same time it helps us not be homesick. It will be nice, however, to cook with our own stuff, like our knives and pots and pans and acres of counter space. Oh, how I miss you, counter space!
After lunch we walked around a bit and had ice cream again (for which I refuse to feel bad), and now we´re blogging and uploading pictures which is taking forrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeevvvvvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrr. So. Expect a pic update soon.
6/22: Travel Day.... Madrid to San Sebastian!
This morning we got up all early, got the last little bits of our stuff together, and headed off to the Busabout pickup point. We decided when we walked there yesterday that on the real time we would take the metro. Didn´t quite count on rush hour being so dang early, though. The first train, that was pulling away as we walked down, was PACKED. And I mean packed like sardines, with people bulging at the doors. eesh. We walked to the middle of the next train and it wasn´t so bad, but anything is bad when you have a huge bag like we did. I always feel like a huge ass blimp when we have our packs all set. Shannon would tell me I´m a blimp anyway, though, and she´d be right. hah.
The bus ride was nice and uneventful, with a nice lunchtime stop in Burgos to see the Cathedral and have lunch. I think they were required to make the stop. Anyway, it was one of our longer trips (8 hours) and it wasn´t bad at all, especially since our second half movie was Love, Actually, which I actually love (man, I kill myself.). We got in to San Sebastian around 4:30, and it was almost as cold as it was in Burgos, which was pretty dang chilly. Got all checked in, and though our hostel is on the 4th floor (what they call the 3rd floor here)I really like it. The staff are all really young Aussies, and they just hang out and surf and stuff.
We went on a Pintxos tour tonight(20€, all food/drink included), kind of like a pub crawl but an eating crawl, which is really more my type of crawl. The guide, who is also the guy running our hostel, is really into the local cuisine, and pintxos (pronounced Pinchos) are a lot like the tapas in Southern Spain. We had patatas bravas, which we´d had before, calamari, these prawn things, some mushrooms like we make at home, roasted pimientos, a beef dish, a fried, milk-poached cod dish, some pork thing that some whores at all of before I could try, and another cod dish that I also didn´t get much of because of said whores. The food was very good and the guide knew a lot about it, so that was good. What sucked was that there were 32 people that signed up, and they were all young people dressed like they were going clubbing, which they probably were later. Most of them I think didn´t eat before it, so they kept gobbling food, so a lot of people didn´t get to try some things because certain people just hovered over the food hogging it. We also tried this local cider that is a natural, flat cider that you pour from very high to aerate it, and drink like a shot (so you only pour a shot amount). It´s rather tart, but has a nice, crisp, different taste to it. We also had a Basque white wine that smells and tastes like a Riesling without the sugar. Very nice.
We left the tour early when we discovered that the ´free shot´at the last bar was actually a shot of schnapps, and had ice cream by ourselves instead (which was soooooooooooooooo good). We really just don´t do well in huge groups that think that the point of traveling is to get wasted and stay out dancing all night.
Also, I forgot to mention that on our last night we went out to have Patatas Bravas at this place that´s known for them (they´re fried potatoes with a spicy sauce). The Patatas Bravas were so-so, but we also ordered pig ears. And I tried them. They were kind of like under-cooked bacon, but with ear cartilage in the middle. Very clearly eating an ear. I wouldn´t eat them again, but they weren´t horrible.
The bus ride was nice and uneventful, with a nice lunchtime stop in Burgos to see the Cathedral and have lunch. I think they were required to make the stop. Anyway, it was one of our longer trips (8 hours) and it wasn´t bad at all, especially since our second half movie was Love, Actually, which I actually love (man, I kill myself.). We got in to San Sebastian around 4:30, and it was almost as cold as it was in Burgos, which was pretty dang chilly. Got all checked in, and though our hostel is on the 4th floor (what they call the 3rd floor here)I really like it. The staff are all really young Aussies, and they just hang out and surf and stuff.
We went on a Pintxos tour tonight(20€, all food/drink included), kind of like a pub crawl but an eating crawl, which is really more my type of crawl. The guide, who is also the guy running our hostel, is really into the local cuisine, and pintxos (pronounced Pinchos) are a lot like the tapas in Southern Spain. We had patatas bravas, which we´d had before, calamari, these prawn things, some mushrooms like we make at home, roasted pimientos, a beef dish, a fried, milk-poached cod dish, some pork thing that some whores at all of before I could try, and another cod dish that I also didn´t get much of because of said whores. The food was very good and the guide knew a lot about it, so that was good. What sucked was that there were 32 people that signed up, and they were all young people dressed like they were going clubbing, which they probably were later. Most of them I think didn´t eat before it, so they kept gobbling food, so a lot of people didn´t get to try some things because certain people just hovered over the food hogging it. We also tried this local cider that is a natural, flat cider that you pour from very high to aerate it, and drink like a shot (so you only pour a shot amount). It´s rather tart, but has a nice, crisp, different taste to it. We also had a Basque white wine that smells and tastes like a Riesling without the sugar. Very nice.
We left the tour early when we discovered that the ´free shot´at the last bar was actually a shot of schnapps, and had ice cream by ourselves instead (which was soooooooooooooooo good). We really just don´t do well in huge groups that think that the point of traveling is to get wasted and stay out dancing all night.
Also, I forgot to mention that on our last night we went out to have Patatas Bravas at this place that´s known for them (they´re fried potatoes with a spicy sauce). The Patatas Bravas were so-so, but we also ordered pig ears. And I tried them. They were kind of like under-cooked bacon, but with ear cartilage in the middle. Very clearly eating an ear. I wouldn´t eat them again, but they weren´t horrible.
6/21: Madrid
Ok so I forgot that yesterday we also went to Palacio Real and walked around (and the Catedral), and walked around in the formal gardens below the palace. None of the Royal Family lives in the palace anymore, but apparently it´s still pretty cool. The formal gardens are very nice and simple, with some fountains and cypresses and small hedge mazes and stuff.
Today we walked back to Parque el Retiro and discovered that they were have a 12-hour long classical music festival in the park, so we sat for about 45 minutes while this lovely pianist played concertos and sonatas and stuff, with some accompaniment by strings and flutes and stuff. Very nice. After that we walked around a bit more and looked at the city. We also took the metro out to the airport and I experienced the very looong people-movers that Brett´s told me all about from his first time in Madrid 6 years ago. They weren´t as long as he remembered them being, but there´s heaps of them, just one after another after another. The metro itself is very nice when you´re well-rested and with someone else to confer with on things and it´s not crazy rush hour. Their signage is very good, and since it´s just listing stops, the diagram really says it all and you don´t need to understand spanish to get it.
Got back just in time to jump on the first load of laundry allowed (housekeeping uses the washing/drying until 5pm, then they let others use it) and boy am I glad we really jumped on that. 10 minutes after we started our clothes we saw people with detergent and bags of clothes wandering the hostel looking for the washing machine. HAHAHAHH. We rule.
Had more bread, creamy goat cheese and turkey and expensive mustard. It´s our favorite mustard from home (aside from Creole Mustard) and it´s ass-expensive here. So is Tabasco, which Brett broke down and bought as well. It´s a little more homey this way. Got a little bit drunker than we had planned but went to bed early anyway.
Today we walked back to Parque el Retiro and discovered that they were have a 12-hour long classical music festival in the park, so we sat for about 45 minutes while this lovely pianist played concertos and sonatas and stuff, with some accompaniment by strings and flutes and stuff. Very nice. After that we walked around a bit more and looked at the city. We also took the metro out to the airport and I experienced the very looong people-movers that Brett´s told me all about from his first time in Madrid 6 years ago. They weren´t as long as he remembered them being, but there´s heaps of them, just one after another after another. The metro itself is very nice when you´re well-rested and with someone else to confer with on things and it´s not crazy rush hour. Their signage is very good, and since it´s just listing stops, the diagram really says it all and you don´t need to understand spanish to get it.
Got back just in time to jump on the first load of laundry allowed (housekeeping uses the washing/drying until 5pm, then they let others use it) and boy am I glad we really jumped on that. 10 minutes after we started our clothes we saw people with detergent and bags of clothes wandering the hostel looking for the washing machine. HAHAHAHH. We rule.
Had more bread, creamy goat cheese and turkey and expensive mustard. It´s our favorite mustard from home (aside from Creole Mustard) and it´s ass-expensive here. So is Tabasco, which Brett broke down and bought as well. It´s a little more homey this way. Got a little bit drunker than we had planned but went to bed early anyway.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
6/20: Madrid
First day in Madrid our first order of business was to see the Reina Sofia. We walked down there and paid our money and all that, but then I got accosted in the first exhibit by this very mean lady who made me throw away my water. IF they don´t want you to bring water in, maybe they should put that up there with the no camera sign. The other thing about the Reina Sofia is that either they have a billion volunteers and nothing for them to do, or they spend a looooot of money on people to stand in EVERY ROOM and stare at you. It´s seriously disturbing, they just stand there watching you. Ugh. Guernica, of course, is really huge and cool, but I actually really liked the Picasso drawings they had also. The thing for me about museums is that I don´t really like them. I get bored, overwhelmed, and irritated because I just don´t find them particularly moving, and I feel like I´m dumb for not liking them or feeling excited about being there. SO I just get grouchy and sleepy.
Walked around a whole whole lot, went to the Parque del Retiro which is HUUUUUUUGE. Seriously. HHHHUUUUUGE. Seriously. Look it up on google maps. We kept walking around and going "wow, here´s another huge building that we couldn´t even see from the outside!!" It was really super pretty, though, and very nice to walk about it. We also saw a couple dry humping in the grass which was oh so nice.
Went for Chocolate con Churros, which is like ´hot chocolate´except just basically smooth melted chocolate, with un cinnamon-sugared churros to dip in it. So fucking good. We´re going to make them, except better, when we get back.
Had bread, cheese, etc for dinner, drank a bunch of wine, went to Plaza Mayor but it was under construction so it was lame, and then went back to go to bed.
Side note: apparently my bed is where people just throw their shit. Some guy in the top bunk left his newspaper spread on my bed plus his suitcase right next to the head of my bed so I couldn´t even open the locker. What a dick.
Walked around a whole whole lot, went to the Parque del Retiro which is HUUUUUUUGE. Seriously. HHHHUUUUUGE. Seriously. Look it up on google maps. We kept walking around and going "wow, here´s another huge building that we couldn´t even see from the outside!!" It was really super pretty, though, and very nice to walk about it. We also saw a couple dry humping in the grass which was oh so nice.
Went for Chocolate con Churros, which is like ´hot chocolate´except just basically smooth melted chocolate, with un cinnamon-sugared churros to dip in it. So fucking good. We´re going to make them, except better, when we get back.
Had bread, cheese, etc for dinner, drank a bunch of wine, went to Plaza Mayor but it was under construction so it was lame, and then went back to go to bed.
Side note: apparently my bed is where people just throw their shit. Some guy in the top bunk left his newspaper spread on my bed plus his suitcase right next to the head of my bed so I couldn´t even open the locker. What a dick.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
NEWWWWW PICCCCYS!
Front of L´Oceanográfic - not many new pics, but we have tons more to upload still!
6/19: Travel Day!!
It´s our last day in Valencia, so here´s my impressions.
I like Valencia a lot, I met some really nice people at our hostel (like Linda and Peter) and the beaches are fantastic, but I liked Barcelona better for some reason.
Also, Spanish speakers get way more pissed off when they find out you can´t speak spanish than english speakers get when you can´t speak english. What the heck. I´m not doing it to piss you off, dude!
Our bus leaves for Madrid at 1:30 here, and then it´s a 5 1/2 hour drive there. Depending on the internet situation it may be a while till posting, and we´ve been lagging on pictures, but there are some new ones up, link posted verrrr verrr soon.
I like Valencia a lot, I met some really nice people at our hostel (like Linda and Peter) and the beaches are fantastic, but I liked Barcelona better for some reason.
Also, Spanish speakers get way more pissed off when they find out you can´t speak spanish than english speakers get when you can´t speak english. What the heck. I´m not doing it to piss you off, dude!
Our bus leaves for Madrid at 1:30 here, and then it´s a 5 1/2 hour drive there. Depending on the internet situation it may be a while till posting, and we´ve been lagging on pictures, but there are some new ones up, link posted verrrr verrr soon.
Monday, June 18, 2007
6/18: Valencia
woke up this morning, had some pears and sandwiches (much diminished from yesterday´s sandwiches by the lack of heirloom tomatoes because El Corte Ingles was closed), and went to see the Catedral de Valencia y Sant Miguelete (my spelling is probably atrocious). The church itself was church-y, but there´s this really tall tower you can go in that is very very cool. It costs two Euro, which is fine, but all Brett and I had were a 50€ note each, so the woman got mad and said in Spanish that I took all her change.
Let me just say that 207 steps doesn´t reallllly sound like that much, but when they´re a spiral staircase and the steps get so fucking narrow at the top that even my feet didn´t fit all the way on them, it gets a lil bit tiring. Finally, gasping, we reached the top, where of course there was some guy sucking on a cigarrette. what the heck? Like his lungs needed the extra challenge. The view from up on top of the tower is reallly nice, much like the one from Parque Guell in Barcelona, though not quite THAT nice. What sucks though is that the architecture here is more modern than that of Barcelona, so even though it´s newer, the weathering and decay of any city makes the buildings here looks kind of run-down and trashy, whereas in Barcelona they just looked authentic. Also, there´s a bell up on top of this tower, right? Well. Unlike in the states where the bells are fake, here, in Spain, they are not. So we were there in the late morning. And I´m gazing out over the city contemplating architecture when all of a sudden BOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!! This huge fucking bell gets rung 12 fucking times (well, it might have been 11 but I´m not sure because my head was vibrating too much to count). Seriously, you could feel the stones of the tower vibrating. It was a VERY deep-toned bell. After my ears stopped ringing I could hear the bells from the other churches and stuff, but they sounded so tinny and lame after being right next to that huge bell that it was a lil lacking.
Walked around the Mercado Central and got stuff for lunch, but the meat counters totally freaked me out cuz of the scent and also because they have like fresh pig´s feet and whole pig heads and stuff, which is a lil too much for me. Had to go to El Corte Ingles to get wine and some other stuff for lunch, then came back and spent a sweltering hour in the kitchen making angelhair pasta with fresh heirloom tomatoes, garlic, and basil. SO good, but that kitchen is seriously HOTHOTHOT. Took a nap for an hour longer than intended, then tried to meet up with Shannon in cyberspace, but it didn´t quite work out :(((((((
Went back to El Corte Ingles for fruit and pistachios and stuff (I know it seems like blue cheese, pears, and pistachios are all we´re eating, and that´s kind of accurate. heh.) Had a bunch more wine and hung out with the Swedes all evening. It was Peter´s birthday, and I also ate waffles with whipped cream and strawberries which I will apparently be eating a looooot of in Belgium. Can´t say I mind.... :)
Let me just say that 207 steps doesn´t reallllly sound like that much, but when they´re a spiral staircase and the steps get so fucking narrow at the top that even my feet didn´t fit all the way on them, it gets a lil bit tiring. Finally, gasping, we reached the top, where of course there was some guy sucking on a cigarrette. what the heck? Like his lungs needed the extra challenge. The view from up on top of the tower is reallly nice, much like the one from Parque Guell in Barcelona, though not quite THAT nice. What sucks though is that the architecture here is more modern than that of Barcelona, so even though it´s newer, the weathering and decay of any city makes the buildings here looks kind of run-down and trashy, whereas in Barcelona they just looked authentic. Also, there´s a bell up on top of this tower, right? Well. Unlike in the states where the bells are fake, here, in Spain, they are not. So we were there in the late morning. And I´m gazing out over the city contemplating architecture when all of a sudden BOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!!!!!! This huge fucking bell gets rung 12 fucking times (well, it might have been 11 but I´m not sure because my head was vibrating too much to count). Seriously, you could feel the stones of the tower vibrating. It was a VERY deep-toned bell. After my ears stopped ringing I could hear the bells from the other churches and stuff, but they sounded so tinny and lame after being right next to that huge bell that it was a lil lacking.
Walked around the Mercado Central and got stuff for lunch, but the meat counters totally freaked me out cuz of the scent and also because they have like fresh pig´s feet and whole pig heads and stuff, which is a lil too much for me. Had to go to El Corte Ingles to get wine and some other stuff for lunch, then came back and spent a sweltering hour in the kitchen making angelhair pasta with fresh heirloom tomatoes, garlic, and basil. SO good, but that kitchen is seriously HOTHOTHOT. Took a nap for an hour longer than intended, then tried to meet up with Shannon in cyberspace, but it didn´t quite work out :(((((((
Went back to El Corte Ingles for fruit and pistachios and stuff (I know it seems like blue cheese, pears, and pistachios are all we´re eating, and that´s kind of accurate. heh.) Had a bunch more wine and hung out with the Swedes all evening. It was Peter´s birthday, and I also ate waffles with whipped cream and strawberries which I will apparently be eating a looooot of in Belgium. Can´t say I mind.... :)
Sunday, June 17, 2007
6/17: Valencia
Did´t get up until 11 or so this morning, and then we had sandwiches and some pistachios for brunch and went to the beach. Hung out there for a loooong time - like 4 hours or so, tanning and swanning about in the water. It wasn´t as windy as on Friday, so we weren´t constantly getting grit everywhere, but it was a bit more crowded given that it´s a weekend. The waves were a bit more impressive, too, meaning they actually raised the water level on you when they went by. Everything is fucking closed today since it´s Sunday, even El Corte Ingles, so we went to some almost convenience-store type place and got nectarines, and cheese to have with our pistachios and pink wine and calimocho. Also got sandwich makings, though just like last night, we may not get to eating them until tomorrow morning. It´s been a nice slow day, very relaxed.
Oh! Got to talk to my parents last night over gmail talk, basically like Skype. Brett and I are having trouble with our internet phone service, but gTalk works really well, and after some initial difficulties, I was chatting with dad, who then handed the phone over to mom who conveniently happened to be at the house. It was really nice to talk to them - I´m not homesick at all, and I´m having a great time and I´ve been in touch with everyone, but there´s something different about hearing their voices. It was nice. Now I just need to engineer Josh getting over to my dad´s or getting gtalk so I can talk to himn on his birthday (a month from yesterday)
Tomorrow´s our last full day in Valencia, and I would guess that we´ll just spend that time mostly at the beach and walking in the park.
Oh! Got to talk to my parents last night over gmail talk, basically like Skype. Brett and I are having trouble with our internet phone service, but gTalk works really well, and after some initial difficulties, I was chatting with dad, who then handed the phone over to mom who conveniently happened to be at the house. It was really nice to talk to them - I´m not homesick at all, and I´m having a great time and I´ve been in touch with everyone, but there´s something different about hearing their voices. It was nice. Now I just need to engineer Josh getting over to my dad´s or getting gtalk so I can talk to himn on his birthday (a month from yesterday)
Tomorrow´s our last full day in Valencia, and I would guess that we´ll just spend that time mostly at the beach and walking in the park.
6/16: Valencia
Got up this morning in time to have breakfast with the Swedes (pineapple, oranges, and orange juice, plus ham & cheese, they really love their ham here!), and then we all headed off to L`Oceonografic (the aquarium) for the day. Katie had told me to go to the Aquarium and the Swedes had been wanting to, so we went for it. It´s a pretty long walk, about 45 minutes, but from our hostel we could walk all of it through this really long, big park with lots of trees and fountains and playgrounds and a football (soccer) field in it. The park is really nice and there´s always people jogging or biking or hanging out in it, and it reminds me a little of Balboa Park because there are a whole bunch of museums all right next to each other at the end of it, just like Balboa Park has. The museums are really crazy, with this insane architecture. One of them looks like a cross between the cyborg mothership, a Roman helmet, and a cruise ship. They´re all gleamingly white with little moats and mini-rivers of white mosaic tiles that are quietly blue around them and cypresses on the terraces on the top floors. Verrrrry cool - pictures to come soon, plus more in the next few days, I would guess. The Aquarium is actually a little beyond the first museums, and it would be easy to get to them except that there´s a huge construction site in between so you have to go around. However, the Aquarium is really really really cool. It´s like a combination of Sea World and the Birch Aquarium, with 7 different sea/climate zones and a dolphin show and stuff. The coolest part is that each zone is a separate building from the entrance building, and they´re all underground. So if you go to the Mediterranean section, there´s a little building that you enter, then you go down a bunch of stairs, and the aquarium for that type of sea life is all huge and underground. It´s a very innovative design. It´s the same for all of them, even the ones with the beluga whales and walruses. The only things above ground are the tropical birds (in a big birdcage that looks like an overgrown hamster ball or something), the sea lions, and the dolphin show. Speaking of which, this is a pretty fucking awesome dolphin show, I must say. Katie had told me that Andres the Dolphin Trainer was hot, and I didn´t get a close look, but he seemed quite attractive, but there were 7 or 8 dolphins in this show, plus 5 or 6 more looking forlorn and alone in the back pool because the other dolphins were getting all the fishes. Poor lil guys. They kept doing half-ass tricks, and it was like they were saying ´look! I can do it too!!! give me some damn fishes!´ The show was very cool though.
One thing I did dislike about the Aquarium is one of my favorite things about other Aquariums I´ve been to. In most aquariums, people are fairly quiet and just observe, but NO. Not the Valencians. It was really really loud in there, and lots of rude people.
Anyway, the aquarium was rather expensive (18€ even with my student discount), but we spent the whole day there so it was definitely worth it.
Had pears and blue cheese and pistachios for dinner, along with some pink wine from a box (yeah for that awesome .80€ boxed wine!!) and beers later. Played pool with the Swedes and Peter and I kicked Brett and Linda´s butts. Also met a Brit named John who had seen two guys fucking in the bushes in the park at duskish. Apparently they saw him, moved a few trees away, and went back at it. Eeeks.
It´s been a good day.
One thing I did dislike about the Aquarium is one of my favorite things about other Aquariums I´ve been to. In most aquariums, people are fairly quiet and just observe, but NO. Not the Valencians. It was really really loud in there, and lots of rude people.
Anyway, the aquarium was rather expensive (18€ even with my student discount), but we spent the whole day there so it was definitely worth it.
Had pears and blue cheese and pistachios for dinner, along with some pink wine from a box (yeah for that awesome .80€ boxed wine!!) and beers later. Played pool with the Swedes and Peter and I kicked Brett and Linda´s butts. Also met a Brit named John who had seen two guys fucking in the bushes in the park at duskish. Apparently they saw him, moved a few trees away, and went back at it. Eeeks.
It´s been a good day.
6/15: travel day!
OK so I´ve been lagging on the updating... sorry!
6/15
we got up at 6 am to get ready in time for our bus to Valencia, and as I was checking email before we left the hostel, I saw a girl in the placa outside our hostel, along with a group of other people, who were all heading home from the clubs. Things never close round Barcelona. I watched her take her shoes off, do the worst cartwheel in history with her dress around her neck and her ugly legging things flashing her ass to everyone, and then pick up her shoes and walk away. It was bizarre.
Busabout was great - we overshot the pickup point a bit on the metro and had to backtrack, but as hostel-finding goes it was a stunning success. Got all set on the bus, and I made sure to take my dramamine (or fake-amine, as we´ve been calling it, because it´s generic brand dramamine), so things were just dandy. I´m really really really glad that we chose to use this service rather than rail or something. the guides speak english, all of the pickup/dropoff points are listed online or in the back of the handbook they give you, they have a little scan-card for you that they scan when you get on the bus each time so that they know they have everyone that had booked that trip (like from Barcelona to Valencia). Also, it was great because this one chick was 7 minutes late, and the guide totally chewed her out for it. The bus itself is really nice, with fairly spacious seats and radio plugs for your headphones in front of every seat, air conditioning, and they played a movie that we could plug into as well. There were even curtains on the windows! PLus, when we got close to Valencia the guide gave a short history of the town and region, mentioned big attractions, etc - he talked about the region for 30 minutes or so. Such a great service, and they stopped every 2 hours or so for a bathroom break, leg stretch, and food break, but this time is built into their estimated travel time that they tell you, and they were very on-time. Awesome.
When we got to Valencia we got checked in and immediately took the bus to the beach. We got to the beach at 2 or 2:30 and didn´t leave until 7ish. Crazy! And it was still really nice out when we left. THe beaches here are much nicer than in Barcelona, with long expanses of clean pale sand and the Mediterranean gently lapping at the shore. It was quite quite windy that day, so there was sand blowing onto us constantly - we went into the water for a while and when we came back our towels were literally almost buried. The water is very clear, and it stays shallow for a really really long way here. The waves are nothing like in San Diego, where the waves are constantly pounding you and you had better stay alert or you get creamed. Here, they are gentle little wavelets, like the waves you make when you get into a bathtub. There were lots of people in the ocean with pool floaties and inner tubes, just floating in the ocean. After the beach we went to El Corte Ingles to get stuff for food, so we got a cool cheese platter-type thing and some bread and gouda and chorizo, along with 3 liters of boxed red wine (0.80 €!!!!) and coke light. So we ate tons of cheese and drank a shit load of calimocho and hung out with the Swedes (Linda and Peter) that we met that are in our room also. Went to bed around 1:30 am and accidentally woke up the Italians in the top bunks of Brett and I´s beds, but apparently it was ok because they were going out the club anyway and had been napping. I don´t know what time they got back, but sometime in the middle of the night the one above me jumped out of the bunk and left our bedroom door wide open along with the bathroom door and threw up for 15 minutes. It didn´t sound like he was doing well.
6/15
we got up at 6 am to get ready in time for our bus to Valencia, and as I was checking email before we left the hostel, I saw a girl in the placa outside our hostel, along with a group of other people, who were all heading home from the clubs. Things never close round Barcelona. I watched her take her shoes off, do the worst cartwheel in history with her dress around her neck and her ugly legging things flashing her ass to everyone, and then pick up her shoes and walk away. It was bizarre.
Busabout was great - we overshot the pickup point a bit on the metro and had to backtrack, but as hostel-finding goes it was a stunning success. Got all set on the bus, and I made sure to take my dramamine (or fake-amine, as we´ve been calling it, because it´s generic brand dramamine), so things were just dandy. I´m really really really glad that we chose to use this service rather than rail or something. the guides speak english, all of the pickup/dropoff points are listed online or in the back of the handbook they give you, they have a little scan-card for you that they scan when you get on the bus each time so that they know they have everyone that had booked that trip (like from Barcelona to Valencia). Also, it was great because this one chick was 7 minutes late, and the guide totally chewed her out for it. The bus itself is really nice, with fairly spacious seats and radio plugs for your headphones in front of every seat, air conditioning, and they played a movie that we could plug into as well. There were even curtains on the windows! PLus, when we got close to Valencia the guide gave a short history of the town and region, mentioned big attractions, etc - he talked about the region for 30 minutes or so. Such a great service, and they stopped every 2 hours or so for a bathroom break, leg stretch, and food break, but this time is built into their estimated travel time that they tell you, and they were very on-time. Awesome.
When we got to Valencia we got checked in and immediately took the bus to the beach. We got to the beach at 2 or 2:30 and didn´t leave until 7ish. Crazy! And it was still really nice out when we left. THe beaches here are much nicer than in Barcelona, with long expanses of clean pale sand and the Mediterranean gently lapping at the shore. It was quite quite windy that day, so there was sand blowing onto us constantly - we went into the water for a while and when we came back our towels were literally almost buried. The water is very clear, and it stays shallow for a really really long way here. The waves are nothing like in San Diego, where the waves are constantly pounding you and you had better stay alert or you get creamed. Here, they are gentle little wavelets, like the waves you make when you get into a bathtub. There were lots of people in the ocean with pool floaties and inner tubes, just floating in the ocean. After the beach we went to El Corte Ingles to get stuff for food, so we got a cool cheese platter-type thing and some bread and gouda and chorizo, along with 3 liters of boxed red wine (0.80 €!!!!) and coke light. So we ate tons of cheese and drank a shit load of calimocho and hung out with the Swedes (Linda and Peter) that we met that are in our room also. Went to bed around 1:30 am and accidentally woke up the Italians in the top bunks of Brett and I´s beds, but apparently it was ok because they were going out the club anyway and had been napping. I don´t know what time they got back, but sometime in the middle of the night the one above me jumped out of the bunk and left our bedroom door wide open along with the bathroom door and threw up for 15 minutes. It didn´t sound like he was doing well.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
6/14: Barcelona
Last night for dinner I mentioned the tapas we got, but let me repeat: we went to this tapas place nearby that we decided on after careful research, which consisted of walking by and deciding to go in. We ordered some red wine, a smoke salmon blini with sour cream and caviar, and a mozarella/basil/tomato thing. Oh my goooood the salmon blini was good. Even the wine was great, and I usually don´t like red wine that much. We also got some oysters on the halfshell, that they pulled out of some water and shucked in front of us. They were exceptionally fresssh. Very very good. Had beers and pita and some outstanding fries from some place nearby and went to bed fairly early.
The beach yesterday was great - a lot more sandy rather than dirt-y like the other beach, and since I haven´t gotten sunburnt yet, I´m quite quite happy with it. I´m getting pretty dark already, which is nice :)
I really really really love it here. There´s something so great about the people and the environment here, with people walking everywhere and eating ice cream all the time. I know it may seem like I´m harping on this, but it´s seriously great. It seems crazy that we already have to leave Barcelona. I know Valencia and all the other places on our trip will be great, but I LOVE Barcelona.
Anywayyyy we are doing laundry now, and got some bocadillos this morning, walked to the hostel our bus picks us up at tomorrow so that we know where it is and how long it takes to walk there (not very far and not very long), then went to the really really huge El Corte Ingles to get me a replacement towel. I know I mentioned El Corte Ingles before, but the one I went into before was tiny. This one looks like a cruise liner, hulking over the street, and it has 10 or 11 floors and and underground part. It´s huge. They have maps of the freaking store available when you walk in so that you don´t get lost or anything. Not only that, they have furniture, DVDs, books, clothes, perfume, makeup, a pharmacy, sporting equipment, luggage, towels, sheets, a full supermarket, lamps, and a fucking TRAVEL AGENCY!! Insane. I´m bringing the map home to prove I´m not making this shit up.
I forgot to mention back in Dublin that we saw a kid with Down´s Syndrome taking pictures of the band in the Green with his camera phone. At this point, nobody can try to tell me that using a cell phone is hard. If a kid with Down´s Syndrome can do it, anyone can.
The beach yesterday was great - a lot more sandy rather than dirt-y like the other beach, and since I haven´t gotten sunburnt yet, I´m quite quite happy with it. I´m getting pretty dark already, which is nice :)
I really really really love it here. There´s something so great about the people and the environment here, with people walking everywhere and eating ice cream all the time. I know it may seem like I´m harping on this, but it´s seriously great. It seems crazy that we already have to leave Barcelona. I know Valencia and all the other places on our trip will be great, but I LOVE Barcelona.
Anywayyyy we are doing laundry now, and got some bocadillos this morning, walked to the hostel our bus picks us up at tomorrow so that we know where it is and how long it takes to walk there (not very far and not very long), then went to the really really huge El Corte Ingles to get me a replacement towel. I know I mentioned El Corte Ingles before, but the one I went into before was tiny. This one looks like a cruise liner, hulking over the street, and it has 10 or 11 floors and and underground part. It´s huge. They have maps of the freaking store available when you walk in so that you don´t get lost or anything. Not only that, they have furniture, DVDs, books, clothes, perfume, makeup, a pharmacy, sporting equipment, luggage, towels, sheets, a full supermarket, lamps, and a fucking TRAVEL AGENCY!! Insane. I´m bringing the map home to prove I´m not making this shit up.
I forgot to mention back in Dublin that we saw a kid with Down´s Syndrome taking pictures of the band in the Green with his camera phone. At this point, nobody can try to tell me that using a cell phone is hard. If a kid with Down´s Syndrome can do it, anyone can.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
6/13: Barcelona
good god I hope these dates are right. After we came back from the internet cafe yesterday we went walking around and had pita before we went to the Arc De Triomf here. We wandered by accident into this amazing park with a HUGE HUGE HUGE fountain. We took a lil catnap to the background of two flamenco dancers practicing near us. It was greeeeat. Then we went back, had bread with jamon y queso (ham and cheese) and gazpacho, where we saw an old man wading in the fountain in Placa Reial. He was collecting cans, but then the police accosted him, made him get out, lectured him, took away his cans, and gave him a ticket. He wasn´t very pleased. We went to bed pretty early that night, but it was good because we needed the break, and our bodies really appreciated the time to recuperate.
Today (Wednesday) we went to Parque Guell in the morning, which meant we took the metro, which was very pleasant and fast. The park was suppppppper crowded, but just like Adam said, The Turo de las Tres Creus was amazing. It is also amazing how fucking steep the street from the metro to Parque Guell is - it´s insane. they don´t warn the unsuspecting, unfit tourists about THAT shit! It´s weird how a city so beautiful on a micro level can be just as ugly and city-like as any other city when you see it on the macro level. I also noticed how teenagers, no matter what language they are speaking, are very very very annoying. The park itself was beautiful, and reminded Brett and I of Devil´s Slide in Idyllwild, and the mosaic parts were really crowded with people taking bad pictures, but very enjoyable to see.
After that we came back to the hostel for gazpacho, cheap wine, and fruit for lunch, then went to the beach for 3 or 4 hours, slept a bit, and managed through careful sunscreen application to once again avoid getting sunburnt. Had some beers on the beach, and some ice cream like the locals do, then went back to rest in our room for a while.
After that, had some amazing tapas at this random place-we had toast with smoked salmon, sour cream and caviar, plus mozarella and tomato, and oysters on the half shell and some great red wine. Now we´re drinking beers in the hostel, trying to make a big night of our last carefree night in Barcelona. Tomorrow we´ll have to go to bed pretty early, because we need to be at the other hostel by 7:45 for our bus ride to Valencia. It´s only a 20 minute walk or so, but we have things to do to be ready, like shower and pack back up and stuff the night before. It´s nice that this hostel has lockers to store one´s shit in and stuff, because the other´s don´t necessarily.
Today (Wednesday) we went to Parque Guell in the morning, which meant we took the metro, which was very pleasant and fast. The park was suppppppper crowded, but just like Adam said, The Turo de las Tres Creus was amazing. It is also amazing how fucking steep the street from the metro to Parque Guell is - it´s insane. they don´t warn the unsuspecting, unfit tourists about THAT shit! It´s weird how a city so beautiful on a micro level can be just as ugly and city-like as any other city when you see it on the macro level. I also noticed how teenagers, no matter what language they are speaking, are very very very annoying. The park itself was beautiful, and reminded Brett and I of Devil´s Slide in Idyllwild, and the mosaic parts were really crowded with people taking bad pictures, but very enjoyable to see.
After that we came back to the hostel for gazpacho, cheap wine, and fruit for lunch, then went to the beach for 3 or 4 hours, slept a bit, and managed through careful sunscreen application to once again avoid getting sunburnt. Had some beers on the beach, and some ice cream like the locals do, then went back to rest in our room for a while.
After that, had some amazing tapas at this random place-we had toast with smoked salmon, sour cream and caviar, plus mozarella and tomato, and oysters on the half shell and some great red wine. Now we´re drinking beers in the hostel, trying to make a big night of our last carefree night in Barcelona. Tomorrow we´ll have to go to bed pretty early, because we need to be at the other hostel by 7:45 for our bus ride to Valencia. It´s only a 20 minute walk or so, but we have things to do to be ready, like shower and pack back up and stuff the night before. It´s nice that this hostel has lockers to store one´s shit in and stuff, because the other´s don´t necessarily.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
6/12: Barcelona
Woke up this morning with a vicious hangover and no memory past playing in a flippy cup relay with some canadians we met. Not a good way to start the day. Drank a liter of sangria and bunches and bunches of beers. Apparently went to get pita on Las Ramblas and completely don´t remember any of it. Oh well! Got up, had breakfast, got showered and then dragged my sorry ass over to La Sagrada Familia. Brett felt fine, the bastard, but I was seriously in bad shape, but I ended up feeling mostly better by the time we got about halfway there. It´s a loooong walk. It´s also super crowded there, so we just looked at the outside for a while, then walked for a while to get away from the expensive shops around La Sagrada Familia and bought cheese, some bread, and some fruit for lunch. Ate lunch in some little teeny park with a really cute dog running around in it, and soon we´ll walk back to the hostel.
All the Gaudi architecture around here is really cool, very modernistic and weird, but I love it. It´s modernistic but organic at the same time. It´s hard to make any transactions since I speak just about no Spanish, but I´m getting along ok, mostly on Brett´s knowledge.
I think we´re going to go to Park Guell tomorrow, or maybe later today, it´s just that we have to take public transport or something because apparently it´s too far to walk. Grrrowl.
All the Gaudi architecture around here is really cool, very modernistic and weird, but I love it. It´s modernistic but organic at the same time. It´s hard to make any transactions since I speak just about no Spanish, but I´m getting along ok, mostly on Brett´s knowledge.
I think we´re going to go to Park Guell tomorrow, or maybe later today, it´s just that we have to take public transport or something because apparently it´s too far to walk. Grrrowl.
Monday, June 11, 2007
6/11: Barcelona
Today we got up somewhat late, just 20 minutes or so late for breakfast. Drat. But I score a muffin from the nice Canadian girl in the next bunk and split a Clif bar with Brett, and am strangely not hungry even though I haven´t really eaten that much since a paltry sandwich at like 4:30 yesterday. What´s cool about this place, though, is that it has free breakfast AND free dinner, which is good because they don´t have a kitchen that we can use. We went out to walk around a bit in the morning, and also to try and find a towel and sunscreen, particularly since I happen to have forgotten my bath towel in Dublin. I have a degree, I´m smart, I swear. Anyway. Wandered around for a while, went in El Corte Ingles, which is this HUGE store with everything from clothes to jewelry to sporting equipment to groceries. However, the particular one we went in was pretty small and did not have sunscreen or towels. No housewares department, I guess. But we did find sunscreen at a pharmacy along the street and bought gaudy beach towels from a street vendor for the appalling price of 10 Euro. Oh well. Walked to the beach (10 minute walk, my ASS) in our flip flops which gave me a blister between my toes. That´s the first time I´ve EVER gotten that type of blister from flip flops. Go figure. I need to be super careful in the showers from now on, until it heals, so that I don´t get some awful infection. I already wear my flip flops in the shower, but caution is important!
Hung out at the beach, which had a fantastic breeze that kept me from getting too hot. The sand is very strange at the beach here, more like a mixture of kitty litter and dirt than the sand we´re used to in the States. We´d been warned that it would be dirty and crowded, but maybe it´s just that we´re from a beach city, but the beach seemed totally fine to me. There´s all these people that walk around trying to sell stuff, and there are particular racial divisions in those people - the Indians sell beer and Fanta and stuff (and coconut pieces, for some reason), the asian women try to get you to buy a massage that SUCKS - lots of slapping and weird maneuvers. My parents would be just appalled. Those women are VERY aggressive, also. Oh well. The water is beautiful, but colder than I expected, with a weird drop-off not too far out. Very salty, also.
Drank gazpacho as we walked there/back, ate bananas and apples, and generally just hung out- we realized that this is our biggest responsibility right now, just hanging out and not getting sunburnt. Went back to the hostel to shower and put on real shoes, then walked around and took pictures, and now we´re going to go out on La Rambla and drink a jug of sangria at a street side cafe (there are TONS AND TONS) and maybe buy postcards.
I love it here. I could totally live here. It´s so fucking beautiful.
Hung out at the beach, which had a fantastic breeze that kept me from getting too hot. The sand is very strange at the beach here, more like a mixture of kitty litter and dirt than the sand we´re used to in the States. We´d been warned that it would be dirty and crowded, but maybe it´s just that we´re from a beach city, but the beach seemed totally fine to me. There´s all these people that walk around trying to sell stuff, and there are particular racial divisions in those people - the Indians sell beer and Fanta and stuff (and coconut pieces, for some reason), the asian women try to get you to buy a massage that SUCKS - lots of slapping and weird maneuvers. My parents would be just appalled. Those women are VERY aggressive, also. Oh well. The water is beautiful, but colder than I expected, with a weird drop-off not too far out. Very salty, also.
Drank gazpacho as we walked there/back, ate bananas and apples, and generally just hung out- we realized that this is our biggest responsibility right now, just hanging out and not getting sunburnt. Went back to the hostel to shower and put on real shoes, then walked around and took pictures, and now we´re going to go out on La Rambla and drink a jug of sangria at a street side cafe (there are TONS AND TONS) and maybe buy postcards.
I love it here. I could totally live here. It´s so fucking beautiful.
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