adventures of a bookworm

what the heck, fabio?

2009-06-08T17:12:00.002-04:00

this is a personal blog for the express purpose of keeping in touch with my friends. as a personal blog, i like to post my experiences and opinions exactly as they are. i understand that not everyone will always agree with me. and that's okay. i do, however, expect a certain level of respect here - especially from people who don't actually know me. i am more than happy to allow everyone to read my blog. but if you have never actually met me, do not make assumptions about the kind of person i am based on a couple dozen blog posts. and if you are going to make assumptions about me, then certainly do not post rude comments containing those assumptions. if you have your own blog and want to write what you think of me on said blog, be my guest; that is your space to do with as you please. but do not come on here and post comments about me on my own blog. it is ridiculously uncalled for. so please, fabio, continue to read my blog. continue to read all about my trip to europe and, especially, all about my time in rome. but if you leave any more rude comments, you can bet all of your friends one million dollars that i will come back and delete every single one. because leaving rude comments on the blog of someone you don't know is the definition of "uncool."

pretty, pretty tree

2009-06-02T08:22:00.003-04:00

there is a very pretty flowering tree that grows here in north carolina. i am not sure what kind of tree it is, but the closest thing i could find to it online is the kwanzan flowering cherry tree. no matter what kind of tree it is, it is truly beautiful. it flowers very early in spring with large, pink blossoms. the most gorgeous one i have seen here in hickory belongs to someone in our neighborhood. in march, as we were heading out to the beach, i had dave pull over so i could take a few pictures of it. now, i took these before my camera was fixed, so i had to brighten them up quite a bit. the colors aren't as vibrant as they were in real life, but i think you'll still get a good idea of how very pretty this tree is. enjoy!

really, it should be illegal

2009-05-29T21:18:00.006-04:00

so, for valentine's day when dave and i were first dating, he got me this little beanie baby that was a teddy bear praying on it's knees. he said that, because he was always begging for forgiveness, the teddy bear (named "thirty") would be his begging proxy and constantly apologize to me on dave's behalf until dave turned 30. well, dave turns 30 on october 12. so for christmas, he got me this huge new teddy bear, resembling thirty, to take up the task beginning october 13. i told him this new bear, being rather large, should last him until he turned 95, so i named the snuggly little fellow "ninety-five" or "neefer" for short.

we were a little worried that chaucer would like neefer too much and see him as the largest, most incredible toy he had ever been given. lucky for us, chaucer is a very smart dog and quickly learned neefer belonged to me. i absolutely love snuggling my big, new teddy bear and often use him as a giant pillow when watching tv and movies. i am not, however, sure who enjoys snuggling neefer more - me or chaucer. often, we will come into the back room or into the bedroom to find chaucer snuggled up with the big teddy bear looking truly pathetic. just a few weeks ago, he really turned it up.

we had been watching tv and, since i was sitting up, neefer was just chillin' next to me. after an hour or so, i looked down and just about died. chaucer was all types of snuggled up and was completely out. of course, we had absolutely no choice but to take a picture.

as if that wasn't bad enough, here's picture number two :

i mean, how ridiculous is that??? and i promise you we did NOT put him in that position. he crawled right under neefer and did it all himself. it's really not fair that we have a little boy this adorable. it really, honestly, truly should be illegal.

just when i needed a good laugh

2009-05-19T18:01:00.004-04:00

so, yesterday was a very...er...eventful day. not one of my finest. i was feeling pretty crappy, so dave told me i should watch "saturday night live." it was the season finale on saturday and i hadn't watched it yet. so i plopped down in front of the couch and turned it on. oh man, it was wonderful. two of my favorites were:

1. tom hanks, as himself, on "celebrity jeopardy." this could have been a huge flop, but he didn't hold back at all and totally nailed it. awesome.

2. the return of the fabulous sisters from the finger lakes on "the lawrence welk show." one word: yeeeeeeees.

just what i needed to pick me up. :D

DAY EIGHTEEN: Parting is Such Sorrow.

2009-05-15T11:48:00.005-04:00

25 March 09

After a lovely final day in Frankfurt, I woke up this morning with both sadness and anticipation. The anticipation was kicked up a knotch when w stepped outside into the freezing cold. If that wasn’t good enough, it started snowing as we waited for the train – I think Europe was kicking me out!

After the train ride and a quick hop on the S-Bahn, Michelle and me bid Stewart adieu and rode up the escalator to the airport. It took forever to find the American Airlines ticket gate (the kiosks are set up rather oddly at that airport), but we asked at one of the information booths and eventually made it. After getting asked a bunch of random questions regarding my bag and batteries (?), I got my ticket and we headed down to the exit station. I bid Michelle and very fond farewell, finally got a second stamp in my passport, stepped through security quick and waited at the gate.

I took the liberty of buying myself some mini version of the cookies we had my first night in Frankfurt, just to give myself one last yummy taste of Europe. I thought I would be much more sad as I sat and waited, but all I was really dreading was 11 hours on a plane with my knee. I was trying to prepare myself for the pain...and the boredom.

It was finally time to board and I gathered my stuff to go. When I got to my seat, I found I was sitting next to a really big dude; not fat, just super tall and thickly built. Needless to say, I was less than excited – and for good reason. The whole time he kept spreading his legs out so his left leg was past the edge of my seat, totally encroaching on my leg room. I kept having to fake shift in my seat, so I would knock his leg back over to his side. Then there was his coat, which kept finding it’s way under my seat instead of his. While there was much more leg room in this plane than the plane on the way to Barcelona, I had a metal box taking up half of my space, so I was not letting him take any more space. I mean, I felt bad for him because he was a big guy and obviously uncomfortable, but he should have requested an exit row...I mean, really. I must say, however, I was glad I was sitting next to him and not in front of him, as he kept putting his arms on top of the head rest of the seat in front of him and laying his head on his arms. The guy in front kept squirming, trying to get him to stop leaning on his seat, but he finally gave up on being nice and slammed his back into seat - my neighbor finally got the hint...though after about half the flight, he tried again.

As for myself, I really was much more comfortable than on the flight out. I could stretch my legs out fully, so my knee didn’t hurt too bad. They also had much better entertainment. Each seat had it’s own video monitor, and they had about one dozen free movies you could watch, as well as TV shows and games. I watched “Yes Man,” “Bolt,” “Valkyrie,” “Bedtime Stories” and an episode of “The Big Bang Theory.” I also played some Tetris, solitaire, poker and sudoku. The trip seemed to go much faster. As fast as it went, however, there really isn’t any way to make a now 12-hour plane ride go “fast.” Every time I finished a movie, I looked at my watch and thought, “Holy crap. We still have that much time left?!” Painful.

I did get to see some cool stuff. My favorite part of the flight was flying over the ocean near Greenland and Canada. I could the oceanic ice, and it was seriously cool. I saw masses of pure white chunks, huge land-mass-sized chunks, and then some thin pieces near the border where you could see the ocean through the ice. I’ve never been that far north before and seen ice like that – it was really, really neat.

Finally, I looked at my watch and saw it was time for us to start landing. Unfortunately, we didn’t seem to be losing any altitude. Just then, the captain came on and told us the Detroit airport was backed up because it had closed for a couple of hours due to thunderstorms. So we were stuck circling Detroit for another hour. We finally landed and deboarded after THIRTEEN HOURS on that plane. Ouch.

After going through the passport check and customs (who, by the way, could not believe I didn’t have any checked bags), I went to see if I had missed my connection. We were two hours late, so I thought I must have missed it, but I hadn’t! Everything was running really late because of the storms, so I made it with time to spare. Hallelujah! I went to the gate and found chaos. There were three flight worth of people backed up and waiting for their planes to leave from that gate. I stood off to the side where most people for my flight were, when I heard a few ladies behind me discussing their “long” flights – 4 hours, 5 hours, 6 hours... I turned around and said, “Well, I just got off a 13-hour flight from Germany. I win!” They all laughed and were like, “Glad I’m not you!” Amen. :)

We finally boarded, and I was lucky to sit next to a woman who was traveling with her little Sheltie, Macayla. She was heading to an agility competition in Charlotte. Macayla was such a sweetie and so well behaved. She curled up under the seat and snoozed the entire way. I totally wanted to crawl under the seat and snuggle up with her. I knew I was only a few hours away from Chaucer, and it made me miss him more than ever! In talking to the lady, she told me about her other dogs and their crazy names. My favorite was her dog who had the registered name, Going Postal, and the call name, Newman. I just about died when she told me. So clever!

The flight was pretty quick (then again, after 13 hours, anything would have seemed quick). When we landed, I was jumping out of my skin to get off that plane and see my boys. Of course, our concourse was all the way at the end of the airport. With the flight to Charlotte, my knee had started killing me, so it took quite a while for me to hobble down to the airport exit. I finally got outside and, after having walked right by our car, I heard Davey’s sweet voice behind me. We had a big hug and kiss, then I walked back to the car to smother my little boy with kisses. I tried to film Chaucer’s reaction on seeing me, but it was too dark. Just take my word for it that he was sooooooooooo happy to see me! I got in, he smothered me with kisses, then curled up on my lap and fell alseep like everything was once again right with the world. *sigh* How I missed him.

We stopped at Cook Out for food, then rushed home. I got inside, threw on my PJs and passed out. I was trying to say my prayers, but I kept falling asleep after every fifth word or so, so I just said “sorry” and gave up. I have never fallen asleep that fast. I was out. It was about 12:30 when I finally got to bed, which was 6:30 for me. I slept until 12:45 the next afternoon. You would think I would feel better after twelve hours of sleep, but I totally feel like I got hit by a bus. The next day, Dave played hookey from school and we went to Charlotte. We went to the Mint Museums, which were really nice, and ate at Smokey Bones. We had wanted to catch a movie or something, but I just couldn’t make it. I got ten hours of sleep that night, and eleven hours the next night. Finally, Sunday morning, after another nine hours of sleep, I woke up feeling quite refreshed. I’m thinking I’ll be totally normal by Tuesday. *fingers crossed*

Oh – I almost forgot – I have the best hubby! He knew I would be bushwhacked by the trip, so he got me the “Twilight” DVD and a pack of golden Oreos. I love him.

Now that I’m home, everything has changed. America is so boring. Where are the bakeries, pastry shops and gelaterias? Where are the old cathedrals and churches and houses? Where are the piazzas and squares? Where is the public transportation and why doesn’t anyone walk outside? It is such a different culture here. Everything is closed off. Everyone has closed curtains, closed doors, yards with fences, special community entrances. Everything says “keep out.” In Europe, the curtains and doors are open, fences don’t exist and everyone gathers in the piazzas to sit and talk – together. Travel is so cheap, you could visit your relatives every weekend if they live in the same country, and every month if they live in Europe. Everything is built to bring people together. (Well, at least in the places we visited – I guess I shouldn’t speak for all of Europe.) I just love that. I mean, America isn’t horrible – it just isn’t as...inviting.

But I supposed I’ll just have to do what I can to make my America as European as possible...until I can go back. :D

So, to wrap up my amazing adventure, here’s a brief list of some of my favorites:
Favorite Pastry: Cinnamon Bun thing, Reichelsheim
Favorite Meal: Taglioni Bolognese at Al Bacco, Venice
Favorite Gelato: Tie between my first scoops at RivaReno and the tartufo in Rome
Favorite Sight in Barcelona: Sagrada Familia and Barceloneta Beach
Favorite Sight in Athens: Temple of Hephaestus and Temple of Olympian Zeus
Favorite Sight in Milan: Teatro alla Scala and Cimitero Monumentale
Favorite Sight in Venice: Basilica di San Marco and Burano Island
Favorite Sight in Rome: Colosseum
Favorite Sight in Frankfurt: Rhine River and Reichelsheim houses
Favorite Cathedral: Basilica di San Marco, Venice
Favorite Rooftop View: Temple de Sagrat Cor, Barcelona
Favorite Overall Sight: Temple of Hephaestus, Athens
Favorite City: To visit, Venice – to live, Milan
Favorite Country: Italy
The One Place I Must Go Back To: Milan, so I can go to the opera at La Scala

And that's it. That's my incredible European journey. I will have one more picture for you later. I wanted to post a pic of all of my souveniers, but my camera is currently in Illinois being fixed. When I get it back, I'll take a snapshot so you can see my super cute purse and such. :) But that will be it. I really wish I could keep writing about it forever and ever, so I could relive it every day. Lucky for you, I know it would eventually get boring to everyone else, so I'll refrain. Just don't be surprised if little Europe references pop up in a lot of my posts - I can't help it! It really was the trip of a lifetime. *sigh*

And now, back to reality.

DAY SEVENTEEN: Lions, and Tigers, and Bears – Oh My!

2009-05-13T20:38:00.042-04:00

24 March 09

After a super cozy night of sleep, I woke up refreshed and ready to go. After getting dressed and reluctantly putting my stinky shoes back on, the three of us headed out. We first went into “town” and got breakfast in a little bakery where I had the most delicious pastry ever! It looked just like a cinnamon bun, but it had a chocolate filling – it was FANTASTIC!

As we left the apartment, I saw this American flag waving down the street. I didn't think much of it at first, but then I was like, "Wait a minute - I'm in Germany!" Crazy, crazy:

Me eating my delectable breakfast pastry:

After our little breakfast we walked around Reichelsheim. We saw the church, some darling houses, the “river,” and the witch tower. Then we headed to the tiny, cold train stop to head into Frankfurt.

Stewart and Michelle in front of the church in Reichelsheim:

A few of the houses in Reichelsheim. I swear they're made of gingerbread:

The river in Reichelsheim. Stewart was taking the second picture and must have been being his usual funny self. :)

A random field outside of Reichelsheim as we rode the train into Frankfurt:

We got into Frankfurt, rode the S-Bahn and U-Bahn, and went to the zoo. We saw some really cool animals! Right when we walked into the zoo, we saw some lions toward the back of their cage.

The lions:

Then we moved on to the tiger enclosure. As we got there, we saw a tiger pacing right in front of the viewing window. While we were taking our pictures, the tiger laid down right in front of the window and started licking himself. There were a couple of German kids next to us and they could not get over it. They kept giggling uncontrollably and yelling, “Er macht seinen penis sauber!” (He’s cleaning his penis!”) It was the most hysterical thing ever. I was just dying. So funny.

Here's the tiger licking himself:

And here's the tiger behaving like a perfect gentleman:

In the back of the enclosure, the female tiger was sitting by the water looking like she was ready to pounce something. I loved this shot with her reflection:

From the tigers we went to the nocturnal house where we saw some really cool animals, though I don’t remember any of their names. My favorite was this little white desert fox, but his enclosure was too dark to get a picture. He was so cute though! They also had sea otters there and they were so playful and adorable! We watched them for a long time. After the otters, we saw chimps, monkeys, rhinos, giraffes...everything but elephants. I loved it.

A collage of some of the animals. Click on it to view it larger:

We got really lucky in the nocturnal enclosures, because they were feeding the animals. To feed them, they had to turn on the lights; otherwise, we never would have gotten any pictures. Here's a shot of one of the keepers feeding the sloth. (Jim P. would be so jealous...):

A video of one of the cute, little nocturnal animals trying to climb his rock:

A video of the hilarious sea otters:

A cool yellow monkey:

This gorgeous male peacock was just chillin' near the sidewalk:

Another collage of the animals. Click on it to view it larger:

In the monkey cage, we saw this new mommy with some serious feeders:

We also saw these two monkeys who were play fighting. They were unbelievably fast! As you play this video, pay attention to the monkey on the right - he swings to the left, then darts back right. Crazy!

There was also this little Marcell monkey (as in Ross's monkey on "Friends"). Notice how the handle of his cage is lifted out? Yeah...he did that. Sneaky monkey.

I fell in love with this chimp. All of the other chimps were hanging out together, but he was just sitting near the window looking pathetic and cute:

We ran into Mr. Peacock again and he showed off his plume for us:

I love giraffes and, though it was too cold for them to be outside, they had several giraffes in an indoor enclosure. When we walked in they were all eating. Here's a video clip of them, with the cutest little baby giraffe chomping away:

Here's a nice shot Stewart took of Michelle and me before we left:

After the zoo we went to this cool restaurant called Vapianos. It’s Italian, and they have all of these different stations where you order your food and then they make it right in front of you. I had spaghetti pomodoro (I know, I’m a broken record). I honestly wasn’t expecting much, but it was really, really good – like, better than a few plates I had in Italy! I also got the chocolate cake, but it wasn’t really good at all. So disappointing. Oh well, I just washed it down with my fourteenth glass of water...seriously, I was SO thirsty.

From lunch we saw the Frankfurt cathedral. In the square outside there were two men having a serious argument (why do we attract the crazies?!). It was a little frightening, but we just kept on going. You had to pay to get into the cathedral, so we just took pictures of the outside.

The Frankfurt cathedral:

From the cathedral we went back to Reichelsheim. We first stopped at the grocery store again so I could get a whole lot of German chocolates and candy for Davey’s Easter basket. After the store we came back to the apartment to take one final picture.

Here are the three of us in front of Stewart and Michelle's apartment. Aren't we just a happy, little family?:

I took a shower, packed and helped Michelle make Donauvelle – a chocolatey German dessert. After we finished we got to eat it while watching “Ocean’s Eleven.” It was so yummy! Now we’re finishing up the movie and it will be off to bed soon.

I can’t believe this is my last night in Europe. This whole time it has felt like I’ve been here for so long, but now it feels like I just got here. I so love Europe – I don’t want to go back to boring America. I just want Davey and Chaucer to fly over here and we can all be European together. We could move to an apartment in Milan and make friends with all of the other little doggies. How great would that be?! As it is, I supposed I’ll have to “settle” for snuggling my little boys in warm, sunny North Carolina. *sigh*

Well, it has been an amazing trip, so I certainly can’t complain. Though I am definitely not looking forward to my looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong flight tomorrow.

DAY SIXTEEN: Danke Schön, Darling, Danke Schön

2009-05-13T10:07:00.025-04:00

23 March 09

Another early morning. We woke up at 3:40 – ouch. We got our smelly selves dressed and headed to the shuttle stop at the train station. And by “smelly,” I mean really smelly. You see, the hostel was supposed to have towels available to rent, but they didn’t. Neither of us had showered since the night before we left Venice. How gross is that? It was to the point where I was starting to smell myself – you know that’s not good...

But anyway, back to the shuttle. Online it says to catch the bus three hours before your flight. There were only two morning shuttles, 4:30 and 6:30, so we opted for the 4:30 bus because we knew we would need more than 30 minutes to check in and go through security. When we got to the shuttle ticket window, the lady told us we were really early and should catch the 6:30 instead. She suggested we go back to our hostel. We were like, “We’re here. We’re awake. Give us the stupid tickets. What do you care?” We got the tickets, got on the bus and were at the airport like 20 minutes later. We had to wait to check in, then we had to fend off two line jumpers after waiting in said line for like twenty minutes (what is wrong with people in Rome??). Our flight was with Ryan Air, and they are super strict about your carry-on luggage. You are only allowed one piece, and they measure it and weigh it. I was a little worried about the weight of my bag, but I made it through with 3kg to spare. Woo woo! We waited at our gate while we ate breakfast, boarded the plane and flew off to Germany.

When we got into Germany, we had to go through customs because they were looking for a terrorist...creepy. I was pissed though, because they still didn’t even stamp my passport. I want more stamps! :( We had some time to kill before catching our bus to Köln, so we got some lunch and then walked over to the bus stop. It was a nice bus ride, the bus was super smooth. As a bonus, we passed a bunch of signs for Bad Kreuznach – my family lived there before I was born or, as my mother likes to say, “before you were even a thought.” We also got to ride on the autobahn, though we didn’t go that fast since we were on a bus.

We finally made it to Köln and met Stewart at the bus station. It was such a happy reunion – he was just beaming to see his darling wife again. So cute! We walked around the station for a bit and got a pretzel (warm and super yummy).

The train station had some interesting decorations, including this gnome garden - complete with drunken German gnome:

And then there was this charming little statue:

After enoying the excellent German humor, we headed over to the Kölner Dom. It was very large and quite pretty, but it was also freeeeeeezing so we didn’t admire it outside for too long.

Here are a few pictures taken from the side of the Dom directly outside the train station. It was overcast, rainy and kind of dark, so these pictures aren't great:

Here are three pictures of the front. The square surrounding the cathedral is small, so it was impossible to get a full shot:

The inside was quite interesting. The ceiling was sooooo tall. There wasn't much decoration in the chapel itself, except for at the back where there were several crypts. But the height of it was just so impressive.

Here's an experimental shot from very low to the floor looking up:

The long chapel area:

There are a ton of stained glass windows, but half of them were blown out during World War II. Since they can’t really replicate the original scenes, they just put interesting patterns in the broken windows. So, on the bottom half, you have these lovely, old, traditional stained glass windows, but right above it you have these new, technicolor windows. It’s kind of cool.

One of the lower traditional windows:

One of the bombed-out windows:

There was also this large gold chest covered in jewels. It apparently houses the bones of the Magi. It was surrounded by a glass box, and the whole box was inside a gated portion of the church, so you couldn’t get a very good look at it, but it still looked beautiful.

One side of the golden shrine:

After the cathedral, we bought our tickets back to Frankfurt and grabbed a Streuselthaler, a yummy sugar-shock treat. Then we hopped on the train and are currently cruising down the Rhine. There are so many cool castles sprinkled throughout the hills along the river. Stewart, the Fulbright scholar, told us that Germany used to be hundred of little states, each with their own princes who needed their own castles. Cool, huh? He is so smart: s-m-r-t. ;) The train was going pretty fast, so it was hard to get a good picture, but I managed to get a few okay shots.

Two cute towns along the Rhine River:

A pretty hill justting into the water:

Two of the castle we saw:

And a cute pic of Stewart and Michelle. I would be lying if I said I wasn't jealous...I missed my honey so badly!

I have been very impressed with how German everything is. The houses have the steep roofs and slim windows, gable fronts, Bavarian shingles – it’s very cool. Well, we’re almost to Frankfurt, so I’ll update you when we get to Reichelsheim.

So we got to Reichelsheim and went to Stewart and Michelle’s apartment to drop off our stuff. It is so cute, and much bigger than I thought – it’s a really nice place. We took a quick rest, then headed out in the rain (just a sprinkle) to the grocery store to pick up dinner. It was so funny to shop in that grocery store. Everything had these German names, there was like 1/4 shelf of chicken and beef and everything else was a pork product, there were all types of cheese and wurst – it was really cool. It totally made me feel like I was in a different country. I just wandered around the store looking at all of the cool ingredients and fun names.

After the store we walked home. Then I took a shower. I can’t even begin to express how AMAZING that shower felt. After four days without a shower, I felt soooooooo disgusting. I’ve been camping for over a week without a shower, but I never felt as dirty as I did after four days of unwashed city filth. I must have been in the shower for at least thirty minutes. I washed my face twice, my hair twice, my body three times and my feet like twenty times. Then I just stood in the water for a bit enjoying the warmth. I finally got out, combed my hair, brushed my teeth (just to complete the clean feeling), put on my PJs and went out to have dinner. I literally cannot express how good it felt to be clean. It was like being reborn or something.

For dinner we had a super yummy salad with lettuce, cucumber, balken-kassen (a feta-like cheese), chicken and dressing. We also had garlic bread. It was so light and fresh - it tasted so delectable. We sat on the couch eating and watched “The Emporer’s New Groove” – love that movie. For a treat we had these really yummy chocolate-covered biscuit cookies. I was bundled up in a blankey and, after my third cookie, I drifted off to sleep. Unfortunately, my clothes were still in the wash (it had been like an hour), so I had to get up thirty minutes later when they finished to hang them up. It was the longest load of wash ever, but it got my clothes nice and clean - even my socks!

After hanging my clothes, I crawled back into bed, snuggled under the cocoon of my feather blanket and slept until morning.

DAY FIFTEEN: Strange Things Are Happening

2009-05-11T20:41:00.044-04:00

22 March 09

Let me start off by explaining how much I loathe the people we roomed with. We went to bed at 10:45, only to be awoken at 11:30 by the light and their talking. They left again at midnight, and I was able to fall back asleep. Then came 1:30. They came in and started making all kinds of noise. They finally went to bed, but their alarm kept going off every 10 minutes until 3:30 – when they woke up, turned on the light and started packing. Finally, at 4:10, they got the heck out. I could not believe they were so inconsiderate as to keep everyone up for hours. Who does that?!?! If you know you have to leave at o’dark-thirty and you’re staying with five other people, wouldn’t you pack the night before?! Apparently not. I have rarely been so mad. Because of their rudeness, our entire room slept in until like 9:30, so we got a bit of a late start. If only I knew their names, I would Facebook each one and tell them what douches they are.

But on to our good day. Our first stop was Villa Borghese. When we got there, we realized we didn’t care much to wander the park, so we just walked across the street to the Piazza del Popolo – where we found a huge setup for the Roma Marathon!

The Piazza del Popolo:

A shot of me in front of one of the two fountains:

I actually liked the other fountain more, especially the statue of Poseidon:

We took some pictures and hung around to catch sight of the first twenty or so leaders. One of the leaders was a woman from Ethiopoa. She was escorted by several cop cars, and the crowd went c-r-a-z-y when she passed by. Apparently, she is a seasoned runner and smashed her lifetime best. Check out this article: http://www.iaaf.org/LRR09/news/newsid=49905.html. It’s pretty cool to know we were actually there. For all we know, we could be in one of those pictures! While we enjoyed watching the race, we agreed we have absolutely no interest in running a marathon.

The female leader from Ethiopia and some folks who were just a short ways behind her:

The army band was even there, playing for all of the runners:

We also saw these adorable doggies laying around while their parents worked the event:

From the piazza we wandered down the marathon route to Piazza di Spagna, which is way cool. I found a darling Italian leather purse on our way, which I just could not resist. When we got to the piazza, it was packed. We sat down on the steps and watched the marathon pass by. It was funny to see the runners get more and more tired as we got closer to the back of the pack. It was also fun to make faces in the background of other people’s pictures. :)

On the Spanish Steps:

Half of the sweet fountain at Piazza di Spagna. It was so crowded, there was no way to get the whole fountain in one shot, which was a shame:

And by crowded, I mean CROWDED. This is a shot of the side street directly across from the piazza. Crazy, eh?:

And here are some more marathon runners. I love how the guy on the right has just given up on running. That would totally be me:

After watching the marathon, we looked for a place to eat. Before we found lunch, however, we found gelato. I know, I know...but don’t blame us, it’s gelato’s fault! I had chocolate and caramel again – yummy. While finishing our gelato, we found a spot to eat called Ciro that had a special going for a margherita pizza for 4,00E. We were all over that! It was really good pizza – my favorite in Italy, in fact. The cheese was yummy, the sauce was fantastic, and the crust was puffy and soft with a hint of that scrumptious wood-fire taste.

From lunch we went to San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane. It is a street corner with four fountains at each corner. It sounds lame, but it's actually quite cool. We both liked the fountains a lot.

A collage of the Quattro Fontane. Click on it to view it larger:

From there we went quickly over to Piazza di Repubblica. In the middle of the piazza is a large, beautiful fountain. Unlike many fountains, they don’t keep it cleaned off, so there was algae and stuff growing all over it. It was so beautiful. My favorite statue from the fountain was of a woman wrestling a horse – gorgeous.

The Piazza di Repubblica:

The beautiful fountain. The second shot is of my favorite statue:

From the piazza we walked over to Quirinale Hill, the Presidential Palace:

An awesome chick standing guard with her rifle. Oh yeah:

While we were there, the officers and band from the marathon pulled up and marched into the building:

We thought that was cool enough, but then they started barricading off the center area. We found a spot right behind the gates, but we didn’t know what we were waiting for. I finally asked a guy and found out the changing of the guard was just a few minutes away. So lucky! When the ceremony finally got underway, we were both stunned by the production. First, they bring out the guard that will be beginning duty led by the band. Next, they bring out the current guard from the building. Then they sing the national anthem, play the national anthem without singing, change the outside guards, march the entire new guard inside, and march the old guard back to their quarters. Then the band marches to the entrance of the palace and plays a little concert.

First, take a look at a few snapshot of the changing of the guard:

Next, check out some video of the grand production. I apologize for the fuzzy view; I didn't know it was on "compact video," so I shouldn't have used the zoom. My bad:

The beginning of the little army band concert:

It took about fifteen minutes for the change, but we didn’t stay for the little concert after so we have no idea how long it went on for! It was pretty cool, but it didn’t compare to Athens.

After the changing of the guard we got more gelato (of course), then went to the Trevi Fountain. There is an old traditiona that if you throw a coin into the fountain, you are guaranteed to return to Rome. Even though Rome was not my favorite city, I still had to throw one in. The fountain was so beautiful, I could have taken pictures of it all day. I got a few good snapshots, but it was so crowded it was impossible to get a picture of the whole thing.

A collage of the Trevi Fountain. Click on it to view it larger:

Here's me throwing in a coin for myself:

And here's my throwing in a coin for my mama:

From the fountain we meandered over to the Pantheon, which I had no idea was a church inside. You learn something new every day!

The Pantheon:

A random temple we saw on our way to and back from the Pantheon:

After a quick stop at the Pantheon we headed back to the Trevi Fountain to find food. As we were walking, we passed a group of girls eating sandwiches. Shortly after we passed, they all started screaming. I turned around and saw that they were yelling at a woman walking behind us who was also eating a sandwich, but I couldn’t figure out why. The woman was walking quite quickly and finally passed us as we got near a restaurant. There was a group of people eating outside the restaurant and, as she passed, she swiped a beer right off their table! She gulped down about 1/3 of it as she walked and set it back down several tables later. When I looked back at the girls (who were still yelling), I realized all but one of them was now eating a sandwich. That’s when it clicked – she had stolen one of the girl’s sandwiches right out of her hand! How crazy is that?!?! I was super glad I wasn’t eating gelato, because if she had stolen my gelato I would have tried to beat the crap out of her. I mean, who does that??? Craziness.

After that escapade we found a spot to eat (which was just okay) and then went to catch the bus. We waited almost one hour for that bus to come. Grr... We stopped at Termini to figure out the airport shuttle, then came back to the hostel to find some nice, new roommates all sitting quietly and reading on their beds. Hallelujah! I also met a lovely girl from Canada taking a semester break to travel. Lucky girl.

As for now, I am very happy to be leaving Rome tomorrow. Today was, I admit, a very wonderful day. Unfortunately, one good day out of three is just not good enough. There is one thing I am very sad about: I didn’t meet my gelato goal – I only made it to 13 cups (2 short). I did, however, get 27 scoops. Not too shabby. ;)

See you in Germany!

DAY FOURTEEN: Umm...What’s So Great About the Vatican?

2009-05-08T12:05:00.043-04:00

21 March 09

After our rude awakening last night, I woke up this morning with a purpose – to wake up those jerks by being as loud as possible. I slapped my bag around, tussled my ziploc bags and slammed my locker until every last jerky moron was awake. I must say, as terribly vindictive as it was, it put me in a truly lovely mood. :)

After getting ready we headed out in the windy cold to the Vatican. After waiting in line for thirty minutes, we started with St. Peter’s Basilica. I was so unimpressed. The whole church was full of statues, painting and figures, but they were all of popes. I found two paintings and one statue of Christ – that’s it. It was very weird to me. It just made me wonder, “What and who are you worshipping here?” What art was in there wasn’t even that great. After all of the other amazing cathedrals we saw, St. Peter’s just did not measure up.

Here's a "lovely" shot of me in front of the Vatican:

A collage of the Vatican. Click on it to view it larger:

From there we headed to the Sistine Chapel. They really need to warn you about that place. We were prepared for a quick thirty-minute trip – wait in line and then head in for a peek. Or not. You have to walk through like seventy rooms before you actually get to the Sistine Chapel. It took foooorrrreeeevvveeeerrrrrrrrrrrr. Many of the rooms, however, were very beautiful with ornate ceilings, ancient tapestries and lovely statues. There was one long room I thought was particularly beautiful. The ceiling was painted rich colors of red, green and blue with gold and white details. The walls were lined with detailed paintings of various Italian cities. It was very beautiful.

One of the first rooms had this beautiful mosaic on the floor:

The beautiful long room with red, green and blue:

One of the Italian city paintings. This one is of Venice (*sigh*):

Then there was a hallway of tapestries; half of them were gorgeous, especially one of the nativity, and half of them were just of popes. The coolest part of the tapestry room, however, was the ceiling. When you first saw it, it looked as if it was covered with sculptures and moldings. After a few minutes of looking at them, I heard the woman behind me say, “Wait a minute...it’s flat. The ceiling is flat!” I looked again, this time at the edges and, sure enough, it was flat. The whole thing was just painted to look 3-D – I could not believe it. I had to keep looking at it, because it looked so incredibly real. It was totally cool.

The nativity tapestry. Flash wasn't allowed, so it's super dark:

The flat ceiling. Incredible, isn't it?

A different room with a beautiful painted and gold ceiling:

Finally, after at least an hour, we made it to the Sistine Chapel. The thing about the Sistine Chapel is that you’re not supposed to take pictures. As you walk through the other seventy rooms, pictures are allowed as long as you don’t use flash. But when you get to the best room – “No pictures!” Yeah right. We just spent 14,00E and one hour of our lives trying to get that room, and all of a sudden non-flash pictures are going to harm the art? Nice try, but your capitalistic-schemes aren’t fooling anyone. Tons of people, myself included, were sneaking pictures. I don’t know what they expect but, unless they make pictures a no-no for the entire building, they will never be able to fully enforce that rule. Sorry, Vatican, but there it is.

As for the chapel itself, it really is beautiful. Again, the whole thing is painted, even though it looks as if moldings and sculptures separate the paintings. We saw the famous “Creation of Adam” painting, but my favorite was of Adam and Eve with the serpent in the Garden of Eden. In fact, with all of the paintings on that ceiling, it made me wonder why the “Creation of Adam” is so famous. (If you happen to know, please tell me – I have looked it up several times and still have no idea.)

The Garden of Eden painting:

The other part of the Sistine Chapel I really loved were the walls. The ceiling paintings only go down about 1/4 or 1/3 of the walls. Michelangelo painted the remaining area of the wall to look as if curtains cover 3/4 of the room. Even though you know they are only painted curtains, you feel as if you're missing something - like the best art is hidden from your view. All I wanted to do was peek behind those curtains! Brilliant.

After I got my pictures we headed back out, which took us through another dozen rooms. One of the hallways had this lovely sculpture of Christ as a shepherd:

We finally made it to the stairs that led to the gift shop and outside. On our way down the stairs, a group of guys from Mississippi State were walking behind us and talking in their heavy Southern accents. It had been a long time since I heard that charming drawl, and I was surprised by how homesick it made me. I miss Hickory! That being said, I’m not ready to leave Europe just yet.

After the Vatican, we walked over to Castel Sant’Angelo and spent a little time on the Ponte Sant’Angelo.

Castel Sant'Angelo:

The Ponte Sant'Angelo is lined with statues. Each one is holding something different to symbolize "freedom" or "faith" and other virtures. It was pretty cool.

We then meandered down the river to the Basilica di Santa Maria in Trastevere. I loved that chapel. It is so unassuming from the outside, but then you walk in to this gorgeous ceiling and gold painted walls. It was so much more beautiful and impressive to me that St. Peter’s.

Basilica di Santa Maria:

A super dark picture of the ceiling (flash wasn't allowed):

Also, the Trastevere neighborhood is lovely. Cute streets, cute shops, nice building, clean streets – finally, a part of Rome I liked. In fact, I liked it so much that, if I never had to travel to any other part of Rome, I could live there quite happily. We also got some excellent gelato. I had a three-scooper of chocolate, Nutella and cream, and caramel – the caramel was out of this world!

A cute street in Trastevere:

An absolutely darling dress from a shop window:

And me enjoying my huge cone of gelato:

We sat on the piazza outside the church and enjoyed our gelato while watching a cute dog sleep. We also had some great entertainment in the group of American teenagers next to us. The boys were having the stupidest conversation. They were complaining about how they couldn’t get laid, but it’s so easy for girls to get it whenever they want. Then one of the guys yells across the square to another kid, “I have your phone. I had to email my mom.” I laughed so hard and totally wanted to yell back, “That’s why you can’t get laid!” To make matters more enjoyable, three girls from the group walked over and sat down by the fountain to eat their gelato. One of the guys was obviously in love with one of the girls, but was seriously the worst flirt I have ever seen. He fake tripped so he could sit next to her (yes, I said fake tripped), but he hit his arm on the girl’s gelato. It was classic – poor guy.

After that entertainment we headed across Tiber Island, stopped quick at Teatro Marcello and snapped some pictures of the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele.

Tiber Island:

Teatro Marcello:

A collage of the Monumento a Vittorio Emanuele II - this thing is HUGE. Click on it to view it larger:

We then headed to Campo di Fiori. As we were walking, we stopped for a rest at Area Sacre and heard some jazz/funk music. We walked down the street and found this awesome group, Funkallista, playing outside of a music store. I wish I knew someone who listened to funk music, because they were really excellent. I would have bought a CD for myself, but I can’t just listen to funk music, so I know I would never use it. Oh well. It just so happened they were playing a few blocks down from Gelateria Tartufo, so of course we had to stop and get some of that deliciousness.

Area Sacra:

When we got to Campo di Fiori, we heard a commotion in the square next door. We walked over there and found political rally going on for the Sinistra e Liberta party. We think it had to do with getting the mafia out of Italy, but really we have no idea. It was still cool though.

The Sinistra e Liberta rally:

The rally ended shortly after we got there, so we went back to Campo di Fiori and got some dinner. I had spaghetti and it was very good. We also got a caprese salad to share - yum. Then again, you can never go wrong with a caprese salad.

Campo Fiori:

A seagull chillin' on one of the fountains in the square:

It was still very cold and we did not want to walk back to the hostel, so we asked our waitress about the bus. We found out where to get the tickets and found our bus. Let me tell you, that was the best 1,00E I’ve spent so far. Now we’re back at the hostel and are just about ready for bed. We decided that if we get woken up again tonight, we’re going to wake up at 6:00 just to be spiteful. Not very Christlike, I know, but nobody’s perfect, right?

As for Rome itself, my opinion is *slightly* better than it was yesterday, but I wish I was back in Milan.

DAY THIRTEEN: I Hate Rome!

2009-05-06T22:38:00.033-04:00

20 March 09

After a lovely stay in Venice we woke up at the crack of dawn to catch our train to Rome. This time I really did have a nice view. ;) I had my own little seat by the window and slept for the first 1-1.5 hours, but after that I just listened to music and watched the countryside roll by. Rolling hill, large snowcapped mountains, small villages, and expansive vineyards. We even rolled through Florence. It was a very nice trip...if only it took us somewhere else.

When we arrived in Rome I was immediately surprised by how crusty it was, but I thought maybe it was just by the train station. We walked down to the hostel and things just got worse from there. The hostel is super tiny, there was water all over the floor of the bathroom (of which there is only one for like 20 people), and the people running the place didn’t seem to know what they were doing. There were no receipts, tons of people waiting and just general chaos. I couldn’t wait to get out of there, but also I couldn’t believe I had to go back. After checking in and locking away our stuff, we headed to Santa Maria Maggiore. It was very pretty inside with a gorgeous gold ceiling. We didn’t stay long though, because we had lots to do!

A collage of Santa Maria Maggiore. Click on it to view it larger:

As I've told you before, I became really obsessed with ceilings on this trip. This was one of my favorite - isn't it gorgeous???

After the church we dead to the Colosseum. Our walk there did not help my initial view of Rome; it was so dirty. Also, they don’t have signals at most of the crosswalks, so you just have to walk out into traffic and hope all the cars stop. Then there are the sidewalks themselves – is it really that hard to build a sidewalk that fits more than one person and is actually flat?! Try walking on a tiny, slanted sidewalk with a bum knee. Suckage. We did, however, eventually make it to the Colosseum and I must admit that made things quite a bit better.

Our first sight of the Colosseum:

I actually thought it would be larger – not that it was small – it just looks so huge in pictures and movies that I expected it to be bigger. But it was just so cool. The whole construction of it is very interesting, especially the rooms and tunnels under the floor – I so wish they would let you go down there.

I took about a billion pictures of the floor, but this is one of my favorites:

We walked around the bottom, then took the teeny tiny stairs to the top (thank heavens there weren’t too many!).

A pic of me at the bottom of the Colosseum...:

...And a pic of me at the top of the Colosseum:

A collage of the Colosseum. Click on it to view it larger:

There was a balcony-type area at the top with an amazing view of the Arch of Constantine and the Roman Forum. I thought that was a really genius thing to do. Not only do you entertain your citizens, but you also give them a beautiful view of their city – now that’s how you build national pride. Clever Romans.

The Arch of Constantine from the top of the Colosseum:

The view of the Forum from the top of Colosseum:

One last view of the awesome Colosseum:

After our time at the Colosseum we stopped at the Arch of Constantine quicky:

We then walked down to the entrance to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. On our way there, I become very frustrated with the people of Rome. Michelle and I would be walking next to each other and a group of five or six people would be walking toward us. The two of us would move into single file to let them pass, but they wouldn’t budge at all so we would just have to walk in the road – what the heck is that?! Some people would even see my bum leg, watching me limp as I moved for them so they could stay on the sidewalk. HOLY ANNOYING AND RUDE! Grr...

Though annoyed, we made it to the Forum and spent a good amount of time walking around, but I wasn’t so impressed. After all of the stuff we saw in Athens, the ruins in the Forum just weren’t that cool. It was also overcast, which certainly didn’t help. There was, however, an excellent view of the Colosseum.

The entrance to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill:

A collage of the Roman Forum. Click on it to view it larger:

I loved this one broken stone in the Forum:

There were also some really cool arches in the Forum with amazingly detailed scenes like this one:

A smiling me in front of the excellent view of the Colosseum:

Unfortunately, after Michelle took the above picture of me, her finger got caught on the strap as she was handing the camera back to me and it dropped. PANIC! It didn’t break, but all of the outside pictures started going dark when I would go to take the picture. It works fine for inside pictures, so I think it must be something with the light sensor. Luckily, it still takes pictures and I should be able to fix the dark ones with Photoshop. Michelle felt so bad, and I felt so bad that she felt so bad – it’s not like she did it on purpose. But we trudged on, broken camera and all. We walked up to the house of Caesar Augustus (another excellent view), and then walked through Palatine Hill.

Me in the Roman Forum:

And me in front of the house of Caesar Augustus:

The view from Caesar's house with the Forum spanning in front of him and the Colosseum to the right. Not bad, eh?

I'm not sure what this used to be in Palatine Hill, but I'm pretty sure it used to be really cool:

After we left the Forum area we walked down to Circus Maximus – so not cool. It’s just a long strip of grass. Maybe if we knew more about the history it would be cool, but it really was just lame.

Lame-o Circus Maximus:

We walked on to the Mouth of Truth and had some people take a picture of us. While we were waiting for them to their picture, the guy of the group had them take one of him picking the face’s nose. It was hilarious. I’m sure he’s not the first to do it, but it seriously cracked us up and we needed it.

Michelle and me braving the Mouth of Truth:

By that time it had turned freeeeeezing cold. There are no metros in like half of the city (Really? I mean, really?!?!), and all of the buses seemed to go to the same places, so we had to trek all the way to Piazza Navona on foot in the cold. Luckily, we found an incredible gelato place on our way there. It was called Gelateria Tartufo, their signature flavor being tartufo (truffle). Oh. My. Goodness. The first cup at RivaReno and the amaretto I had in Venice were also amazing, but I think this was my favorite.

When we finally got to the Piazza there was an amazing street performer. He had wired his coat and tie, somehow fixed up his pants, and gelled his hair so it looked as if he was stuck mid-step on his way to work. It was amazing. He even had the toe of his foot lifted – how do you stay like that for so long? It was so creative and brilliantly done, I just had to take a picture and give him some money. Awesome.

The street perform at Piazza Navona. How awesome is he?!

The main fountain at Piazza Navona:

Since we were so cold, we found a restaurant with lots of heaters, sat ourselves down and ate for a long time. The meal was fine, but when the check came my hate for Rome was clinched. I had ordered veal saltimbocca, and when I ordered the waiter asked if I wanted potatoes or spinach - as in which side item would you prefer? When the check came, I was charged 7,00E for those potatoes! I told the guy he had offered them to me as if they were a side item, not a separate optional add-on. He was like, “No. Separate plate, separate charge”...as if he hadn’t mislead me on purpose. I was pissed. We paid and left, and then got lost on the incredibly long walk back to the hostel.

Even though our intended path back to the hostel wasn't anywhere near the Trevi Fountain, we somehow ended up there. If only I wasn't in such a foul mood - I could have enjoyed it much more:

We finally made it back to the hostel and immediately went to bed only to be woken up at like 11:00 by our obscenely loud roommates. They were so inconsiderate, I really wanted to hurt them. And that was the nail in Rome’s already deeply buried coffin. It’s dirty, the people aren’t nice, the transportation sucks, they drive like maniacs and the sites aren’t even that cool.

I hate Rome.

DAY TWELVE: I Hope We Didn’t Jinx Us Permanently...

2009-05-06T09:15:00.021-04:00

19 March 09

Today was a great day – very low-key. In the morning we slept in, took our time getting ready and headed to the Fondamente Nova station to catch the waterbus to Murano and Burano islands. We hadn't yet been to the North-side of the island of Venice, so it was a fun walk. We saw some pretty houses and a nice church.

A bridge and a pretty house with a garden on the Grand Canal:

Italians love their flag, and I loved this particular shot of the Italian flag and the flag of the European Union flying outside a window on the Grand Canal:

The pretty church we found just before the Fondamente Nova station:

Venice is so easy to get around, for the most part. They have yellow signs everywhere leading to the various waterbus stations. Even though we didn't have a map, we found the station quite easily. It was a quick boat ride, but very pretty.

The Venice cemetary from the waterbus to Murano. It's just one big island:

The island of Murano is known for it's glass. There are “Fornace’s” everywhere named after the master glassworkers. So you’ll see a Fornace Antony Rossetti, then you’ll see a little storefront for Antony Rossetti Glass. Pretty cool. We wandered around all of the shops looking at the tiny figurines, grand chandeliers, modern vases and even glass jewelry. It was pretty amazing to see what those people can do wit some glass, heat and creativity.

Me in front of some cool glass sculptures on Murano:

A collage of Murano Island. Click on it to view it larger:

My favorite store was Silvestri (?). It was very modern glassware, with the some really cool drinking glass and vase sets. My mom would l-o-v-e that store – very sheik and simple. I was lucky to find a tiny nativity scene for my collection and this awesome suuuuuuuuuuper long weiner dog for Jean – I can’t wait to give it to her! Of course, we also stopped and got gelato. We may be on a small island known for it’s glass, but we haven’t lost our focus. ;)

After Murano, we headed over to the island of Burano. What a cool place. The houses are painted super bright colors like aqua, pink, lime, bright purple, cobalt blue, etc. The shutters are mostly are vivid kelly green, and most houses have pots of colorful flowers on the window sills and clothes hanging on the line. Very charming. I got some cool pictures, which make my pictures of the whole trip rather fun to flip through: you have drab old church, drab old building, white old columns, drab old water – BAM! Bright pink house! It’s awesome. While on Burano we got some pizza to share; nothing to write home about, but they did give us cool silverware bags.

Some sweet graffiti (literally) on the way to Burano:

A collage of the houses on Burano. Click on it to view it larger:

We found this house that perfectly matched Michelle's coat. Where did she go?!

The island is known for it’s lace work and we saw a coupld of old ladies sitting in their doorways making lace. It’s really cool, they have this brown paper with the lace pattern on it and they somehow sew the lace right onto or overtop of the paper (not sure which). It is amazing how intricate they can make it. In one lady’s shop I found a tiny doily for my nativity scene – perfect.

OH! How could I forget?!?! The best story of the whole trip so far! While we were looking around at the houses, Michelle stopped to take a picture. I continued to gimp across a little bridge (that’s our system now: if she needs to stop, I just hobble along and then she can walk like a normal person for a little bit to catch up to me). After I had crossed the little bridge I came to a fork in the road. I looked back, but she wasn’t in sight, so I wanted...and waited...and waited...and waited. I looked back again to see where she was, but she was nowhere to be found. I backtracked over the bridge and, as I came over to the other side, I saw her emerge from a bright little house with a very disturbed look on her face.

Apparently, while she was taking a picture, some old man came out of his house and motioned for her to come over. She thought he had a shop in his house (as many of the locals do), so she went over to see what he was selling. He asked her to come in and sit down; she did, but them she realized he was not selling anything. Uh oh. He then started asking her how she liked Burano and said, “It’s very pretty, isn’t it? Like you.” Big uh oh. She got up to leave, but he stopped her by giving her a piece of paper from a stack on his desk. He said the paper had his name and address on it and asked her to send him a picture of herself. By this time she was thoroughly creeped out and told him she really had to go because her friend was waiting. He offered her coffee, she said no. He then started showing her pictures of his family until she insisted she had to go and basically ran to the door. He opened it for her, smothering her cheek with tooth-less kisses as she went. Ga-ross. That’s when I saw her emerge from the house with her terrified expression.

Now, I know I should have been very concerned as I listened to this tale, but I could not stop laughing. It was like the creepiest thing I have ever heard of but, since it hadn’t happened to me, it was also the funniest. The unsuspecting old man trying to hit on a girl who could probably be his granddaughter...so creepy! That guy is probably in his basement now, sewing lace out of girl’s skins or something. *Shiver*

After that little adventure and a quick lunch, we decided we shouldn’t press our luck on Burano anymore, so we headed back to Venice for more of my favorite gelato. All throughout the day we kept talking about the amazing weather we have been having on this trip. So of course, by the time our waterbus reached Venice, it was starting to get windy and overcast. Great. We bustled over to the Piazza di San Marco so Michelle could buy a nice watercolor of Venice (she caught the last guy packing up!) and then we hustled our way home on the waterbus.

A view of the stormy skyline on the shore of the Piazza di San Marco:

The iconic pink lamps of San Marco against the brewing sky:

The water was so choppy, the busses had a bit of a hard time not slamming into each stop. That being said, I was sitting behind this cute little boy. He was playing hide and seek with me behind his chair, and he had the most BEAUTIFUL eyelashes I have ever seen - they were so long and dark. Totally going to be a lady-killer when he grows up. Half-way through the trip him and his brother switched seats (the mom was sitting across the boat). A few minutes after his brother sat down (who was still cute, but didn't have those killer eyelashes), he started playing hide and seek with me too! I guess I must have looked especially fun that day. :)

After that fun trip, we got off the bus, ran quickly into the train station to buy our tickets to Rome, and started for the hotel. Michelle went into a shop real quick to get some treats for breakfast the next morning. I waited in front of the shop where it just so happens they were selling gelato – I can’t help myself! I finished my cup, but I couldn’t find Michelle anywhere (the place was packed), so I headed to the hotel. Michelle wasn’t far behind and got in just time before the rain started.

With that we went to bed. It was only 8:30, but seeing as how we had to wake up at o’dark-thirty, we wanted to get all the sleep we could in our comfy beds. Unfortunately, there was some kind of dinosaur in the hotel. Someone was moving furniture or something in their room, I swear – they were so loud. It took me a bit to fall asleep, and then they kept waking me up. When it was 1:30 in the morning, I seriously almost got up and yelled “Shut the heck up!” into the hallway, but someone else must have because they stopped and I finally fell asleep...

Tucked in and cozy in our wonderful Hotel Leonardo bed:

DAY ELEVEN: I Could Stay Here Forever

2009-05-05T11:01:00.039-04:00

i'm baaaaaaaaack! after our spring break trip, I was slammed with a 500 invitation rush order (ah!). it's all done now and i finally have time to continue re-living my wonderful trip. after preparing pictures last night, i fell asleep and once again dreamt about europe. it's been a couple of weeks since i've had a europe dream and i have missed them very much. hopefully, as i continue my updates here, the dreams will become more frequent. now, last time i wrote i left you at our first day in venice. we visited the jewish ghetto, took a trip down the grand canal, and quickly found ourselves falling in love with the city on water. our second day proved just as wonderful...

18 March 09

What a lovely day. Our room was so nice and dark this morning. We slept in until 8:00 and took our time getting ready. It was so nice not to feel rushed either from wanting to get an early start or just from wanting to get the heck out of our room. We headed out the door at 9:00 and caught the waterbus. The Grand Canal was so pretty in the early morning fog, even though it was rather chilly.

Early morning fog on the Grand Canal:

My favorite part about taking the waterbus is the voice of the female announcer. She announces each stop in both Italian and English, and it sounds something like this: "Proxima fermata, Ca d'Oro. Next-a stop-a, Ca d'Oro." I love it! For whatever reason, Ca d'Oro was my favorite stop for this announcement, so I had to take a picture of said building:

Gondolas on the Canal:

Our first stop-a was the Rialto Fish Market. I must say, after the market on La Rambla in Barcelona it was a little underwhelming. It looked more like the Hickory Farmer’s Market. That being said, it was a seafood lover’s dream: mounds of shrimp, piles of huge clams, stacks of fish, even squid and octopus. And it was all f-r-e-s-h. At each station they had a person toward the back scaling fish, chopping squid, shelling shrimp, and doing whatever other preparation the customers asked for. Now that’s fresh fish.

A collage of the Rialto Fish Market. Click on it to view it larger:

After the market we wandered across Rialto Bridge and took the waterbus to Santa Maria Glorioso dei Frari to meet up with my friend Nancy.

A nice pic of me on the Rialto Bridge:

Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari:

We waited for an hour, but Nancy never came. We figured she must have missed her train (which she did), so we finally moved on. We were pretty bummed though. She knows Venice pretty well and we were excited to tour the island with someone who knew it. She also had a special lunch spot picked out for us and you know how I love food! We had a nice time waiting for her though. There were two gondoliers hanging out in the square, a group of musicians playing, and a lot of really cute puppies. There was this tiny little dapple dachshund named Chloe who came right up to me and gave me little kisses – I wanted to steal her, but Michelle held me back.

The two gondoliers in the square outside the church. I just loved that one was on his cell phone and the other was eating a huge sandwich - it's just funny seeing them do such normal things in those shirts and hats. :)

The beautiful gondolas of our two gondoliers:

We also read the newspaper over a woman’s shoulder and found out about Natasha Richardson’s death. That was weird. We couldn’t tell how she died, but the headline was pretty easy to translate. :( It is a very odd experience learning about big news like that in another country. A lot of people on the subways and such read the paper and almost every paper has something about Obama and/or the United States economy. That’s usually as much as I can figure out language-wise and it is really odd to know that the person next to me who does not live in American knows more about it right now than I do. I don’t know if that makes sense, but I don’t know quite exactly how to describe the feeling. It’s just weird.

Anywho, after our wait we got gelato (this time I got chocolate and caramel – yum!) and decided to head to the Basilica di San Marco. We first stopped outside the Palazzo Ducale and took some pictures of the outside of both the Palazzo Ducale and San Marco.

Palazzo Ducale:

We also peaked at the Bridge of Sighs quick...only to find it covered by construction. Lovely. Here's a pic anyway:

Basilica di San Marco:

After all of the cathedrals we have seen already, you kind of expect them to become redundant and boring. Not so. Wow. Super wow. The entire ceiling and part-way down the walls is completely covered in tiny mosaic tiles – detailed faces, colorful robes, gorgeous scenes – all surrounded by gold. I believe it covers 8,000 square meters. It was literally breath-taking; I kept yawning because I was holding my breath while looking around. It is one of the most impressive things I have ever seen in my life. In fact, it may be the most,/i> impressive as far as man-made wonders go. There is no way to describe how incredible and detailed it is. Of course, you can’t take pictures inside, but even the pictures I found online don’t even come close to doing it justice. You just can’t capture that on camera.

Detail of one of the mosaics from the outside terrace. Now just imagine this all over the inside. Amazing, isn't it?

We looked around the inside for quite some time, then we wandered up to the museum and outside terrace. So, so, so gorgeous. The entire ceiling has been restored, and they have large chunks of the original mosaics in the museum. You can get super close to them, as well as some of the actual ceiling areas including Mary’s family tree. You could reach and out touch it – not that we did. But my favorite part of the museum were the horses. The four horses on the outside of the church are actually replicas of the originals, which have been restored and are now kept in the museum. As hard as they tried to create good replicas, they’re really kind of terrible. When you see the horses on the outside, they’re not very large or powerful looking. When you see the originals, however, they are totally powerful. The gold is rich, not dull and dark like on the replicas. The greened copper scratches (made on purpose to inhibit the reflection of the gold) are deep and long as if they were made by Wolverine, whereas on the replicas they are tiny and look like they were made by a toddler with a fork. The originals are larger, bulkier and truly awesome (in the original sense of the word). The reproductions look ugly in comparison.

A collage of the Basilica di San Marco. Click on it to view it larger:

Also in the museum they had a lot of old tapestries and carpets from when the church originally opened. I have never thought that much of tapestries before, but while we were in Athens I read “The Lady and the Unicorn” and learned how they actually made them. Wow. So much more impressive now. Did you know the weavers never saw the entire tapestry until it was completed? They would sew a foot or so at a time, and they sewed it from the back, so they never even saw the front. After the entire tapestry was completed, they would have a ceremonious unrolling where they would finally be able to see the incredible art they had created. Cool, huh? I thought so.

After spending time in the museum, we went onto the terrace. They have several mosaics there you can see up-close and take pictures of. It also offers an excellent view of the two neighboring piazzas.

A view of the piazza outside the Palazza Ducale:

A view of the Piazza di San Marco:

We staying up there for a while and finally headed down and out of the church. We hung out in the piazza for a while, when we heard some kind of commotion a little ways away from us. We went over to check it out and found four American college guys singing barbershop. It was so fun! They sang a couple of songs, including the most adorable song I’ve ever heard called “Recipe for Making Love.”

A little video snippet of our barbershop quartet:

We also saw a couple on their way to a carnivale party. We thought it was kind of weird, because carnivale was like a month ago, but it was still fun for us to see!

After listening to them, we had planned on visiting the Palazzo Ducale, but it was much more expensive than the website advertised. We were bummed, but we weren’t paying 16,00E to get in there. Instead, we headed over to Santa Maria delle Salute and took a nice rest on the steps while we talked about our families and enjoyed the water...until it got super dirty.

Santa Maria delle Salute:

The steps outside Santa Maria delle Salute leading to the water. This is one of my favorite pictures:

We then wanted to head over to Campo Santa Margherita but got completely lost. We didn’t care though, getting lost is the best part about Venice. :) We found the outer edge of the island and sat some more while eating gelato. We continued wandering around, enjoying the houses and streets and small canals.

A pretty side canal:

A cool letter slot:

As we walked down one side street we saw this gorgeous, sunlit green tree ahead of us. It was so picturesque, I had to take some pictures:

We finally found Campo Santa Margherita and chilled there for a bit a just people-watched. After the Campo we found our way back to the hotel and rested for a while.

Campo Santa Margherita:

Some kids playing soccer in the square:

A random church we saw on our way back to the hotel:

As we were taking pictures of the church, I turned around and saw the offices for the German Ambassador (or something). I just had to take a picture of Michelle in front of it. :D

On the waterbus back to the hotel, I finally got a good shot of my favorite window along the Canal. If ever I move to Venice, this is where I will live:

We wanted to find a really good place for dinner, so we walked down a bunch of side streets until we found a little tobacco/magazine/souvenir shop. We went in and asked for a restaurant recommendation. One of the customers recommended a place just down the street, Al Bacco. He was pretty definite about it, so we decided to head down there. We found it easily and were perusing the menu outside when an American came over and started debating whether or not they wanted to go in. We told them a local had recommended the place to us and the lady looked at me and said, “Yes, well it is highly recommended, but we never go into an empty restaurant.” Well, excuse me! I really wanted to point out that it was rather early for Italians to be eating dinner, but I decided to keep my opinions to myself and let them fend for themselves. Michelle and I went in and, upon smelling the place, knew it must be “known” for it’s seafood. They did have two non-fish items on the menu, homemade taglioni with red sauce and homemade taglioni with pesto. I ordered the red sauce and Michelle got the pesto. Oh. My. Delicious. I can’t even tell you how freaking good that pasta was. I ate the entire plate, sopped up the extra sauce with my bread, called the waiter over, ordered another plate, and ate that too. I could have eaten a third plate, but I thought that would be a little gluttonous. Mmm....my mouth is watering just writing this. I want more! Oh - that couple did eventually come in, by the way. And about half-way through our meal the locals started trickling in. By the time we left, it was packed. I hope they were happy.

After our super tasty dinner we went back to the hotel and went to sleep. With all of our wandering and seeing the city, I came to the conclusion that I could vacation here forever. I loved Barcelona and am convinced everyone should see Athens at least once in their lifetime, but Venice is the best vacation spot ever. It’s so slow and peaceful. Tomorrow we’re heading out to Murano and Burano, which I am very excited about. But first I need to find postcards and a pen – this pencil is dying!

vacation

2009-04-12T23:21:00.004-04:00

as if my trip of a lifetime to europe wasn't enough, i am currently on vacation in seabrook island, south carolina. it's dave's spring break, so we met up with his brother and sister-in-law and their adorable baby boy at his aunt and uncle's beach house (are there enough relatives in there to confuse you yet?). an excellent vacation with free room and board - yeah, we're pretty excited. i had meant to bring my journal and keep the europe updates coming, but apparently i forgot it so you'll just have to wait. my bad.

DAY TEN: Run, Girls, Run!

2009-04-10T11:42:00.026-04:00

18 March 09

Last night I slept much better. I still woke up at like 6:00 a.m., but at least I felt rested. We headed out early to Cimitero Monumentale. Another wow. First off, it is huge. But more impressive was the absolute beauty of those sculptures and grave stones.

The entrance to Cimitero Monumentale:

A collage of the grave statues at Cimitero Monumentale. Click on it to view it larger:

A few of my favorite grave sculptures:

I could have wandered around all day taking pictures. A sculpture lover’s and photographer’s dream. Unfortunately, we only had thirty minutes there before we had to rush off to “The Last Supper.” And rush we did! I was hobbling like crazy, trying my best to run, and we got there just in time. We stepped inside the building right as they were opening the door for our group to go in. WHEW!

Santa Maria delle Grazie, home of "The Last Supper":

Me "running" to the church:

I had no idea how large that painting was. I also didn’t know it was painted right onto the wall. It was very beautiful. It’s really a very simple painting: one room, one table, three windows and thirteen figures – that’s it. It’s the scale of it and the expressions of the faces that make it so interesting. On the opposite wall was a painting by someone else. It was slightly larger, but was filled with figures and animals and angels and all sorts of stuff to the point where you just didn’t even know where to look. To see “The Last Supper” in contrast to that painting made it all the more powerful. We only got to stay for fifteen minutes, but it was a great fifteen minutes. Just thinking about it now brings back all the beauty and awe of it.

After that we headed back to the metro, went to the train station, bought our tickets to Venice and here we are – on the train! I am very excited to be on the train; it’s my first train ride. It’s also exciting because I have an excellent view: the man sitting across from me happens to be very, very good looking – oh sheesh, he just smiled, even better! (And he was smiling because he was on the phone, not because he was reading this...just in case you thought there was a correlation.) Seriously though, I am very excited to be on my way to Venice, Italy. I never thought this day would come!

The train station in Milan. (If you were hoping this would be a picture of my beautiful train companion I apologize, but I thought that would be a little weird...)

Oh my goodness, this place is magical. The moment we stepped out of the train station we were facing the Grand Canal and it hit me like a truck – I am really in Europe! I have felt like I was in a different place for some time now, but now it has really hit me exactly where I am. I am across the Atlantic Ocean. Craziness!

My first glimpses of the beautiful city of Venice:

From the train station we headed to our hotel, Hotel Leonardo. On the way, we just had to stop and grab some gelato. I got one scoop chocolate and one scoop mint. It wasn’t as smooth and creamy as RivaReno, but it was still delicious! As for the hotel, it is very nice. It’s on a nice, quiet side street and the beds are super comfy. All the rest of the day I was super excited to get back and actually be able to sleep – I have missed sleep so.

After checking in we decided to go to the Jewish Ghetto and Museum. The first thing we saw was this old street they had preserved - so sad. It had a very prison look to it. It made me want to cry. I took a picture and, as we were walking back out of the street, we noticed a blue spray-painted swastika on the wall. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I know anti-semitism exists, but to see right there in a spot that memorializes the pain the Jewish people suffered was just unbelievable. I really want to find whoever did it and kick their ass hardcore. How can you do that?!?! Jerks.

The old street in the Jewish Ghetto:

From the street we continued into a large square. They had these beautiful plaques on the walls of scenes of the Nazi invasion and collection of the Venetian Jews. I know my family wasn’t here in Venice, but it still struck me very hard. I just don’t understand how you could justify those things. The museum itself was very small but pretty cool. They had Torah crowns and arks and shield, scroll boxes, manorrahs, pew cloths and prayer shawls. They were all so ornate.

The main square of the Jewish Ghetto:

After the museum we walked to the head waterbus station and cruised down the Grand Canal on a No. 2 bus. We got seats in the very front which were great for the view, but seriously freezing. It was amazing though. With every building and every boat and every bridge it became more and more real that we were in Venice, Italy – Venice, Italy! Too cool.

A shot of me on the bridge across from the train station looking down the Grand Canal:

The Grand Canal:

A collage of the Grand Canal. Click on it to view it larger:

A charming side canal:

We made it all the way down to the Piazza San Marco and walked around a bit. We were rather hungry, but the food around the piazza was expensive. We decided to take the waterbus back up to the main station and find some food near the hotel. Unfortunately, the food we had wasn’t that good, but I suppose we can’t hit the bull’s-eye every time. We did, however, stop for gelato on the way home and that was definitely delicious.

When we got to the hotel we watched some music videos (hoping to find our song from the park in Milan), then we laughed at a few Looney Tunes cartoons in Italian. Good stuff. Finally, we called it a night and nestled into bed. And let me tell you – that bed felt gooooooooood.

DAY NINE: Music (Video) In the Park

2009-04-09T10:23:00.035-04:00

17 March 09

What a day! Yesterday I woke up super early after the worst night of sleep ever. The bed I’m sleeping on is a total kidney buster – worse than Jenny’s bed. Michelle didn’t believe me about how hard it was until she sat on it herself. Her face was priceless. Told you so. ;)

Anywho, the early wake up was alright as it got us to the Duomo that much earlier. Before we got there, we ran into quite an unexpected sight. We were walked to the metro by our hotel when we heard some squaking sounds. They were coming from behind a vine-covered fence, so we went to peak in and see what was going on. We were definitely not ready for what we saw. There, in the middle of MIlan, were a dozen......pink flamingos! Within the gate was a really lovely yard/garden, complete with small flamingo pond. Crazy, huh? We thought so.

The flamingos in the middle of Milan:

A random beautiful building on our walk to the metro:

When we got to the Duomo, I was knocked over with the sight of it. Holy impressive. That church is massive and very, very ornate. We started by taking a couple of shots outside, then headed inside.

The Duomo. Isn't it huge?

Another shot of the outside. I love this picture; I feel like it should come with a choir of angels singing in the background:

A statue in the Piazza del Duomo. As my hilarious friend Nikki pointed out, Ray-Ban should be boycotted for this:

A shot of me standing in front of one of the main doors. I look so tiny!

The floor was so beautiful. It was a flower-patterned marble, but the pattern was really large. They laid it out in black, tan and white, which somehow made the large, bold pattern more subtle.

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I found this picture online showing the floor:

There were also these huge columns (you would need like four arms to fit around one) that were scalloped at the base to compliment the floral pattern in the floor. So beautiful. As for the ceiling, I have no idea how to tall it was, but it was quite breathtaking. And then there was the glass. They had these gorgeous stained glass windows all down the sides with three super large windows at the back. I counted, and they were about twelve normal panes wide and probably thirty high. They were unbelievable beautiful – I have never seen stained glass windows that size. While I was looking at them, two bishops (?) and a priest walked out of a small enclosed chapel. It was actually a striking image of them in their bright purple robes against the color glass of the large windows. If only we were allowed to take pictures inside...

The large stained glass window from the outside. Look at the size of it!

After looking around the inside, we went to find roof access. I wanted to take the lift to save my knee, but the man there told me and this old lady (with two canes) that it was closed and to take the lift on the other side. We both thought there was only the one lift, but we were like, “Okay, I guess he knows better than us.” So we walked all the way around to where the stairs were only for them to tell us there was no lift on that side, but the lift on the other side was open. We told them it wasn’t and they assured us it was. So we walked all the way around again just to have the lift operator once again tell us it was closed. We told him his friends on the other side said it should be open and asked him why it was closed. He said he didn’t know, but that there was a gate in front of it with a “closed” sign. So we walked all the way around again to inform the stair operators that the lift was indeed closed. They were sticking to their guns that it wasn’t, but I really didn’t have time to wait around for them to get their act together. I paid for my stairs ticket, sucked up the pain and walked up. Once I got to the top, I started walking around when – oh my stars – I ran into the lady with the two canes. I looked at her, rather bewildered, and she said, “The lift operator was wrong. It was open and they let me up.” I can’t even begin to tell you how mad I was. But I told myself not to let it spoil my experience.

The view at the top of the Duomo was nice, but I mostly enjoyed seeing the detail of the cathedral itself so upclose. We spend quite a bit of time at the top, taking pictures and enjoying the view.

A collage of the Duomo. Click on it to view it larger:

When we were done, I told Michelle I was going to try to take the lift back down. I went over to where the lift was and called it up. I explained to the lift operator that he had told me the lift was closed several times, so I had sucked it up and climbed the stairs on a bad knee. I offered to pay the extra 2,00E for the elevator ticket, but he would not let me ride back down. I reminded him once again that it was him who wrong and wouldn’t let me up the lift in the first place and that I had a hurt knee that killed, especially when walking down stairs. All he could reply was “No possible.” I could have hit him. Seriously. I was so angry, tears were forming in my eyes. But I held my fist, and my ready-to-let-him-really-have-it tongue, and painfully (and sloooowly) gimped down the stairs. That totally had me peeved for a while, but I again told myself not to let some moron’s incompetence ruin my day. I was, after all, in Milan, Italy – how bad could it really be?!?!

After the Duomo we walked through the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II. The entrance and ceiling are very cool, but the inside is much smaller than I thought it would be. It wasn’t really as impressive as it looks in pictures. I did, however, get a supermodel pic in front of Prada.

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II:

Me posing in front of Prada:

After the gallery we exited right in front of the Teatro alla Scala, Milan’s famous opera house where Verdi premiered almost all of his operas.

The outside of Teatro alla Scala:

We went inside and wow – definitely one of my favorite places of the trip so far. (Sorry though, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside.) All of the walls are upholstered with the richest stain fabrics: cyan with kelly green embroidery, spicy orange with deep red, sunset yellow with robin’s egg blue – each color pure and luscious. There are gorgeous teardrop chandeliers in the main gallery, with cream walls and gold-gilded trim and filigree. The opera house itself has a small orchestra section with red velvet chairs; the rest of the house is lined with private boxes upholstered in red on red fabrics with white and gold wood.

While we were there, there was a crew of musicians preparing for a concert. One of the men was tuning pianos and, when he finished, the mater pianist came out to place his pianos. He would play, move the piano a couple of inches, play again, move it a centimeter or two, play it again, move it again, etc. It went on for about ten minutes before we realized he was going to be awhile. He was an incredible pianist though and the acoustics were insane – it was like he was playing right next to me, but we were all the way at the back of the house.

After listening to Mr. Piano Man, we went and sat in the gallery for a bit. Michelled noticed two champagne flutes tucked behind one of the decorative busts. I can’t imagine 1) how incredible the operas there must be, and 2) how elegant the entire affair must be. I have decided it is a new life goal for me to attend an opera at La Scala. And for whatever reason, I actually have hope it will happen.

After touring the opera house we went through the La Scala Museum. They had antique instruments (my favorite was this white, striated glass flute); jewelry and props from old operas; portraits of famous composers, maestros and performers; even playing cards, spyglasses, fans and snuff boxes people left behind in their boxes after performances. They even had a lock of Verdi’s hair, which was actually kind of creepy. Despite the hair, I loved every minute of it.

After La Scala we headed over to San Siro stadium, the entrance to which we could not find. As we were trying to find the entrance, Michelle walked on ahead of me (since she could walk a lot faster) to see what she could find. As I was hobbling along a ways behind her, this nice businessman (not at all creepy) got out of his car and offered me a ride to wherever I was going. It took me a while to figure out what he was saying, as he spoke no English, but when I did finally get it I just gushed a big smile and thanked him for asking. It was sooooo nice of him to see this struggling, hobbling girl and offer her a ride, especially since it looked like he had somewhere important to be. I hope he got major points in heaven for that one.

After that fun escapade we headed to Castello Sforzesco. That place was way bigger than I thought it would be and quite pretty. There is ivy all over it, but the leaves weren’t out yet – I can’t imagine how beautiful it must look when it’s all grown over.

Some quick pics of Castello Sforzesco:

As we were walking in, we got hammered by a bunch of guys selling “good luck” bracelets. One kept following me and would not go away, so to get rid of him I said, “gratis” (free), and let him put one on quick and then walked away. So annoying. One got Michelle too and kept calling after me, “Sister! Sister!” but I just kept on walking. We finally got away from them, which was amazing because they really were some determined bastards, and looked around the castle quick. We sat down for a little break, but I was absolutely starving by this point, so we went back out to a little restaurant and shared a margherita pizza. Yummy!

A lovely shot of me eating my delicious pizza:

After our delicious pizza we went back around the castle to Parco Sempione, which was a lovely park. There were lots of people lounging around, walking their dogs or their kids, just lazying. As we were looking for a spot to claim as our own, we saw a group of people dancing on some stone bleachers. We walked over to where they were and found they were filming a music video or movie or something. They had a bunch of people in business wear danching, with different people coming out in front to do freestyle solos. The best was this Indian guy in a black jacket – dude got busy! The song was in Italian: “A is for ____, B is for ____, C is for ____, D is for ____, E is for ____.” Super, super, super catchy! We sat and watched them for a good two hours. They danced on the stairs, by the lake, on the bridge – it was fantastic. And the dances were so uber-cheesy, it was classic.

The dancers at Parco Sempione. The second picture has the wicked awesome Indian guy bustin' a move on that front stone:

After that excitement we metroed over to the fashion district. Gucci, Prada, Valentino, Alfaretti – store after store of top name designers and super chic clothes. There was even a 13,700E dress at Ralph Lauren. Holy crazy. My favorite, however, was this gorgeous turquoise gown at Valentino. That dress, a wide diamond bracelet and a metallic clutch – I’d be ready for the Oscars. It was really fun window shopping, but we didn’t dare go inside one of the store as we probably couldn’t afford so much as a tissue at any of them.

My Valentino dress:

After our little coveting session we went to find food. Turns out the restaurants in Milan don’t even open until 7:00 or 7:30. So instead of getting dinner, we got gelato! We went to this renowned place, RivaReno Gelato. I got one scoop chocolate, one scoop mascarpone with nutella drizzled into the bottom of a waffle bowl. In the instant I took that first bite of chocolate, my life changed forever. The texture, so smooth and velvety. The taste, so rich and pure. I can die happy now. Seriously.

My second bite of the perfection that is gelato. (My first bite was too special to share.):

We chilled around the gelato place for a while (surfing the free internet and attempting to type on their cool-looking but completely impractical keyboards) and then headed out to dinner. We found a place close by and were the only Americans there the whole time we were eating – a very good sign. I had bruschetta and spaghetti pomodoro (my meal of choice in Italy). It was amazing. The flavor was just so dang good. Michelle ordered a calzone and I just about died when they brought it out – it was like twice the size of her head! I couldn’t stop laughing, it was so awesome. The impressive thing is that she totally ate most of it.

Michelle's ginormous calzone. (I had to rip this pic off Facebook, so I don't know how great the quality will be):

While we ate, we were sitting next to these two guys. They spoke Italian and I totally felt like they were talking about us the whole time. I’m sure they weren’t, but when I can’t understand what someone else is saying, I usually assume they’re talking about me. Toward the end of our meal, someone got up and went to the bathroom, which was right behind us. All of a sudden they turned on the hand dryer, which was super loud! It gave Michelle and me a start, and then we just started laughing. I pretended I was being blown away, and the guys next to us started laughing so hard – I guess they thought that was pretty funny. We all laughed about it for a while and, just as we were getting over it, someone else went in and turned the blower on. Too funny. The guys left shortly after, but it was nice to leave on good terms – I felt much less self-conscious knowing I had made them laugh.

After dinner we headed back to the hostel to rest up for our next big day. I can’t say I was excited to sleep on that rock hard bed, but I was excited to see “The Last Supper”, ride my first train and go to Venice all in the next day. It’s going to be a fun one!

DAY EIGHT: An Adventure Within an Adventure

2009-04-08T11:26:00.026-04:00

15 March 09

Didn’t sleep great last night. I kept freaking out that we were going to sleep in, and Michelle kept having crazy dreams about Paul Rudd and this shirt we saw downtown that was super cute but turned really ugly in her dream – ah! But we still got a good kick-start on our day. We got to the Athens Flea Market around 8:00 a.m., got croissants and then started looking around. My guide book said to get to the flea market early because it turns crazy by 9:00, but apparently it doesn’t get that way in March. We definitely could have slept in and gone whenever, but oh well. It was a pretty incredible flea market. I was amazed by the stuff they had there: beautiful chairs, silver, chandeliers, candelabras, even an antique diving helmet – Doug Schmidt would have been in heaven. Of course there was some junk too, but I was wishing I could ship some of that stuff over to refinish and reupholster. Gorgeous possibilities. Unfortunately, I was a moron and forgot to take any pictures. Shoot.

After wandering around the flea market we made our way to the flower market, which apparently doesn’t take place on Sunday?? On our way there we got stopped by some random guy who swore he had seen me in an airport in Canada. He would not accept the fact that I have never even stepped foot in a Canadian airport. It was so weird.

After our fruitless excursion to the flower market and odd run-in with airport dude, we headed to Syntagma and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They started some of their marching right as we got there, but the actual changing of the guard wasn’t until 11:00 so we wanted to wait (it was about 9:30 a.m.).

A shot of me with one of the guards at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier:

As we were waiting, a bus of American tourists pulled up – man, we can be disrespectful. Before the American tourists arrived there had been a group of about two dozen 10-11 year olds who were much better behaved than the adult Americans (25-60 year olds). The Americans were trying to surround the guards while taking pictures, touching the guards, flexing their muscles next to the guards, even walking past the guards all the way to the back to stand right next to the tomb. It was ridiculous. The inspection/security guard kept yelling at them over and over. I was so sad to be from the same country as those people. And they were all complaining about how they didn’t understand how they were being disrespectful. I wanted to be like, “Umm, let’s say you went to the White House and there were two Army guards standing in front: would you do these things to them? Didn’t think so.” They finally headed back to the bus a few minutes before 10:00 when, all of a sudden, the changing of the guard began. I was stoked, as I had been standing front and center and had an A+ view.

I got some excellent video - check it out:

It was such a cool ceremony. It’s like they’re performing a dance, and they’re so precise about it. It is especially interesting with their traditional uniforms. It was one of my favorite parts about Athens. [Since coming back, I have found out that the changing of the guard happens every hour, but that the grandest ceremony occurs at 11:00 a.m. Sunday mornings. I suppose we could have waited another hour to see it, but what we saw was cool enough. Next time!]

After the changing of the guard we headed to the National Archaeological Museum. We had been carrying our packs the whole time and were very happy to have to check them. My pack is actually really, really nice. I couldn’t feel the weight of my pack on my back or shoulder at all (thank you Outdoor Supply and Gregory Backpacks), but my feet were definitely feeling the extra fifteen pounds.

The National Archaeological Museum:

The museum inside was amazing – it went on foooorrrreeeeevvveeerrrrr. My favorite were the gold necklaces (holy gorgeous!), the large statue and female statue (random people, but really beautiful), and the little figurines. It is truly incredible the condition those artifacts are in. They have swords with perfectly preserved handles and detailed inscriptions you can still make out on the blade; tiny pots and earrings and figurines, all either whole or almost whole; statues and gravestones and decorated trims perfectly in tact; even a bronze statue that still had the glass eyes in it – so cool.

Wall painting from Tiryns, 1400 to 1200 BC:

Gold necklaces from Mycenae Grave Circles, 1600 to 1100 BC:

Cycladic female figures, 3000 BC:

Sounion kouros (naked youths), 600 BC:

Zeus or Poseidon of Artemision, 460 BC:

Random female figure from the Classical period, 300BC:

When you’re looking at the artifact and the condition it’s in, and then look down at the date of how old the artifact is, it like blows your mind. We also wandered down to the shop where I found a beautiful scarf for 12,00E. I have been looking for a nice scarf ever since I got to Europe, but they all looked like scarves I could find in the U.S. This one is unique and even has Greek writing on it (not that I know what it says...). I’ve been wearing it all day and I love it!

After the museum we wandered back down to Omonia station, looking for food along the way. We saw a restaurants packed with Greeks and decided to go in and eat. I was called Neon Restaurant. Shortly after we got there Michelle went up front to look at some of the food. While she was gone a woman came in, came over to me and started asking me something in Greek. I tried to tell her I didn’t speak English, but she just started getting really frustrated and was kind of raising her voice. Finally, the waiter came over, pointed at me and said “Xeni!” (foreigner). She was like “Ohhhh” and then he directed her to a different table. I thought it was so funny that he called me “xeni;” I felt like I was in a scene of “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.” To make it even better, the waiter’s name was Costas. Awesome. As for our actual lunch, I finally got a Greek salad (holy delicious!), and also got a kabob souvlaki (wow). It was amazingly tasty. I still can’t get over how good the souvlaki was; it is such a disgusting looking tube of meat, but it’s packed with so much flavor – yummy, yummy, yummy.

Also while we ate lunch we saw about a dozen street vendors sprint by with their stuffed sheets thrown over their shoulders. Michelle said, “The police must be coming” and a few seconds later we saw a couple of police drive by on motorcycles. It was pretty funny.

After lunch we decided to head out to Irini to see the Olympic Stadium. We got on the metro that was supposed to go straight to the stadium, but it stopped at Attiki (about seven stops before Irini) and said it was the end of the line. Michelle and I were just kind of sitting on the metro clueless, when this guy motioned to us that we had to get off. We got off and the guy led us up to where there was a line of busses waiting. We stood looking at the busses thinking, “Okay...what now?” He didn’t speak any English, so with gestures and pointing he asked us where we were going and we told him Irini. He checked our metro tickets to see if they worked on the bus, which they didn’t, and then led us down to the ticket booth to help us buy two bus tickets. Then he took us back up to the busses, found us the right bus and made sure we got on okay. How nice is that?! The best part is that after we got on the bus, he thanked us. We were like, “No – thank you!” So nice. I told Michelle I was really glad we were girls, because that never would have happened if we were two guys...

After our little bus adventure we made it to Irini and, happily, the bus dropped us off right in front of the stadium. That place is huge. It’s completely white and has this really cool path covered by a long row of arches. We took a couple of pictures, walked around a little bit, then headed back to the bus.

The Olympic Stadium at Irini:

Cheesing it up on the bus back to Athens:

We got back to Athens, stopped to get some baklava for the road, headed to Syntagma Square and loaded the bus to the airport. Now we’re sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to Milan, ITALY! As a final farewell to Greece we happily ate our baklava in the airport – it was the perfect way to say goodbye. Athens has been wonderful, but I am sooooooooo excited to finally see Italy (and eat gelato). And to think, we’re not even half-way through this journey.

See you in Italia!

DAY SEVEN: Not All Dogs Go to Heaven

2009-04-07T11:56:00.019-04:00

14 March 09

Today started out nice and relaxed. We slept in and headed to Lykavittos Hill. That was way too much of a hike that early (or not early, but early to my body) in the morning. My knee was already hurting and we had quite a climb to the tram. There were some signs to the hill, but apparently they were for cars, so we took a loooooooong way around instead of the direct route I had planned. I guess that’s what I get for second-guessing the plans.

We finally made it though and, after the ticket lady cursed at Michelle under her breath for only have a 50,00E banknote, we got our tickets and boarded the tram. The trip was short, the view was okay and the chapel was extremely small. But the hill did have a very cool view of the Acropolis and out to Aegean Island.

The view from Lykavittos Hill:

There was a gorgeous view of the Acropolis from the top of the hill:

Agios Georgios:

After the tram ride and long hobble back down, we headed over to Filopappos Hill. We were happy to stop at Crescendo Patisserie again before heading down Dionysiou Areopagitou for the beautiful walk to the hill. There was a man playing a mandolin who had been there the day before as well – I have decided I love that instrument. The music is almost haunting, but really beautiful. I could have stopped and listened to him play for a long time, but I had to keep hobbling along...we had a lot to see.

Our first stop at Filopappos was Socrates’ Prison. Let me tell you, I wouldn’t want to spend one night there – it was small, hard and probably very cold at night. Poor Socrates. Then we headed up the mountain to the actual monument. There were four dogs up there; one pack of three and one single stray. I was dying from the climb up, so we enjoyed the lovely view for a bit and then started to head down.

Socrates' Prison:

Filopappos Monument:

View from the top of Filopappos Hill. The first is of the city of Athens, the second is of the Parthenon and Acropolis:

Michelle noticed something at the foot of the monument, but when she went over to check it out, two of the dogs of the pack of three got up and started barking at her. It wasn’t a vicious bark, but seeing as there were three of them and only one of her (and they were big dogs), she didn’t want to press her luck and find out whether or not they just wanted to play.

After getting back down the hill we headed over to Dora Stratou theatre, which wasn’t open, then took a quick peak at the Deme of Koile (an ancient road).

The Deme of Koile:

We then went on to find out what the Pnyx was; turns out it wasn’t much. As we were leaving, however, I saw these awesome ancient stairs leading to the Deme of Koile. We started walking toward them and noticed three dogs lying around and one walking with a limp. We didn’t think anything of them, as there are dogs everywhere and they’re all nice. I pulled my camera out and took a few steps toward the stairs when, all of a sudden, the black, limping dog started viciously barking at us. He was growling and showing us his teeth, and then he crouched down like he was going to charge and attack. I put my hands up, backed up slowly, turned around and limped out of there as fast as I could! I completely thought he would chase us, but we got away unscathed. I was so terrified. If I couldn’t walk before, I definitely couldn’t walk then. The fast limping and quick turn has really hurt my knee, plus my legs were like jell-o from the fright. We found a bench, sat down and waited for our hearts to restart.

While we waited, there was a group of Greeks having a picnic on the opposite corner. They were having a grand ol’ time, especially as they attempted to sing “Happy Birthday” in Spanish, which was hilarious as they only knew like five words of the chorus. I wish I would have filmed it, but by the time Michelle mentioned it they were done singing. Oh well...at least we hadn’t been eaten by wild dogs, right?

Ooh, and I almost forgot to mention the adorable little dachshund we met while on Filopappoes. He was a black and tan and had so much energy. He was leading his little pack of humans, sniffing everything in sight. I tried to get him to come to me so I could give him some pets, but he was just too excited to stop for even one second.

Isn't he such a cutie?!

Once we were recharged we headed out of the site, back down Dionysiou Areopagitou to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. That is definitely my other favorite place in Athens along with the Temple of Hephaestus. Those columns are so gorgeous, and the fallen column is so perfectly placed it looks like someone did it on purpose.

A pic of me in front of the Temple of Olympian Zeus:

A collage of the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Click on it to view it larger:

I took a bunch of picture there, then we headed over to the National Gardens. Well, actually first we headed to the Zappeio Gardens, but when we realized we were in the wrong place we went to the right one. I found a nice little bench and saw down for probably an hour or so. My knee and my feet were seriously killing me, so it felt really good to give them a nice, long rest.

Here's a shot of me in front of some flowers at one of the entrances to the National Garden:

After the National Gardens we went in search of some famous gyros our roommate, Gu, had told us about. In Plateia Monastiraki is a little place with green shutters, Mp-something. Delicious. We scarfed down our gyros, then just sat and people-watched for a while. While we were sitting, this really darling dog that had been wandering around found a cozy little spot beneath the ATM, curled up and fell asleep. He laid perfectly so his body was in the sun, but his eyes were shaded by the shadow of a pole or something. While he was sleeping there, a nice woman came and laid some souvlaki meat right in front of his nose. I expected him to perk right up as soon as he smelled it, but he just kept on sleeping as she laid out piece after piece. I could not believe my eyes – it was one of the most precious things I have ever seen. That is definitely one talent Chaucer does not have. :)

The darling dog sleeping with his souvlaki:

Finally, we were ready to go back to the hotel, get some Magnum ice cream bars (double chocolate for me, double caramel for Michelle) and relax. Our plane leaves at 8:40 p.m. tomorrow, so we will be traveling around the city with our packs all day. Luckily, we only have the flea market, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the National Archaeological Museum to do, so we can take it easy. I also want to make sure I get a Greek salad before we head to the bus around 5:00. Hopefully our pack won’t kill us, and hopefully we can find seats on the bus time time!

DAY SIX: We Are Warriors!

2009-04-06T13:42:00.057-04:00

13 March 09

Let me start by saying the beds here suck – big time. The mattresses are hard, the pillows are too high and firm, it’s too light in the room and it’s super noisy. Needless to say, neither Michelle nor I slept well last night.

We woke up around 7:15, got ready and headed to the Acropolis (after stopping for some warm, fresh croissants). That place is amazing. The Parthenon, the two theatres (I much preferred Dionysus as Herodes Atticus is too restored), the Propylaia, the Temple of Athena Nike (my favorite) – all of it was just beautiful and sooooo old! The view was also gorgeous. I mostly enjoyed just walking around and looking at the old stones surrounded by grass and wildflowers – it’s so peaceful and enchanting. It must have been a sight to behold in its original form.

Our first site of the Acropolis from Dionysiou Areopagitou:

Some random stones and areas from the bottom section of the Acropolis:

The Theatre of Herodes Atticus, the music theatre, from the front and top:

We actually went a bit off the beaten path on our way to the Theatre of Dionysus, the theatre used for plays and the first stone theatre ever built. There was an official path that went all the way around the theatre, and then an unofficial path that went right next to the theatre and down the theatre steps. We opted for the unofficial path and walked down the ancient steps of the Theatre of Dionysus. It was pretty cool.

The Theatre of Dionysus. The first picture was taken while standing on the steps of the theatre.

There were these beautiful red poppies sprinkled thorughout the Acropolis. I thought this one was particularly beautiful against the perfectly ivory stone:

The Propylaia, entrance to the main buildings of the Acropolis:

Me and Michelle in front of the Parthenon:

A collage of the Parthenon. Click on it to view it larger:

The stones in the main courtyard of the Acropolis. Aren't they beautiful?

Some views of the amazing archaeological sites from the top of the Acropolis. The first is a view of the bottom section of the Acropolis, the second is a view of the Agora, the third is a view of the Temple of Olympian Zeus.

A collage of my favorite Acropolis building, the Temple of Athena Nike. I also took some of my favorite pictures at this building. Click on the collage to view it larger:

But my absolute favorite part of the Acropolis were the dogs. They were all over the Acropolis and sleeping like my little boy; I just wanted to snuggle up with them and take a nap. :)

Finally, here's me enjoying the view of the city of Athens. The Temple of Hephaestus is off to the left-side of me.

I was really glad we woke up early. The Acropolis was a bit crowded while we were there, but as we were walking out there was tour group after tour group after tour group entering. I can’t even imagine how much more crowded it must have been after we left. For most of the other sites we saw, we really didn’t need to wake up early since it wasn’t tourist season, but I’m guessing the Acropolis is always crazy crowded as it is an absolute sight to behold.

After the Acropolis we had planned to go to the New Acropolis Museum, but it was closed. They are still in the process of building it, but they had opened it for a few months to let the locals and such preview it. I guess we missed the cut-off though. Oh well. I was bummed, but it was us more time to just walk the streets and that was the best. Looking at the shops and restaurants, smiling at all of the dogs, almost getting run over by all of the mopeds...it was truly great.

On our walk, we took a quick stop at the Monument of Lysikrates, wondered through the neighborhood of Anafiotika, happened upon Hadrian’s Library and finally found the Roman Agora and Tower of the Winds. In the Agora there was a little family of dogs; mom, dad and two adorable puppies, one black and one tan. They were playing with a stick and wrestling, just like Chaucer and Frank – so darling! Oh, and the ruins were cool too. I actually really liked Hadrian’s Library, it had a tiny section of floor with original mosaic tiles. And the Roman Agora was also very cool.

The Monument of Lysikrates:

A collage of Hadrian's Library. Click on it to view it larger:

A collage of the Roman Agora. Click on it to view it larger:

Me being a dork in front of some statues:

The cute puppies in the Roman Agora. Told you they were adorable!

A pic of Michelle in front of the Tower of the Winds:

I love how you just walk around the ruins here. There is one little booth at the entrance with a person to take your ticket and then you’re just set free to look around as you want. Some sections are roped off to make sure you don’t break anything, but you can get as close as you want, climb the stairs and really see everything. It allows you to make your visit so relaxed and personal. It’s not like people are in there running around and touching everything and being crazy – you know you’re in an ancient place and people really respect that. It’s great that they trust you to respect it. Granted, it might be totally different during the summer when there are a lot more people there, but for us it was great.

Our next stop was the Agora and, my personal favorite (so far), the Temple of Hephaestus. The Agora was cool. Again you can just walk through at your own pace and admire the different walls and statues and so forth.

Collage of the Agora. Click on it to view it larger:

One of the first things you see as you enter the Agora is an old church. It's not as old as the rest of the Agora, but it is very pretty and has a lot of old paintings on the walls.

The old Agora church and one of the paintings in the dome of a ceiling:

A view of the Acropolis from the Agora:

Me being a dork (again) in front of a statue of Emporer Hadrian:

The Temple of Hephaestus is in such immaculate condition – it is AMAZING! There are some crumbled stones inside, a few chunks missing from a couple of the pillars and some moss; other than that, it felt like an ancient Greek was about to step outside in his toga and sandals. There was also like no one up there, so we had the whole temple to ourselves – very cool.

Collage of the Temple of Hephaestus. Click on it to view it larger:

The only problem was that my knee was really hurting and I had to walk down a few dozen stairs. I made it through by singing “One Step At a Time” by Jordin Sparks in my head. I know it’s uber-cheesy, but it seriously worked.

After the Agora, we made our way to Kerameikos. All I had wanted to see there was the famous bull, so I took a seat and rested my aching knee while Michelle roamed the grounds. Shortly after she started walking the grounds, she called me over to look at – of all things – a tortoise! I couldn’t believe it. I sat back down and she wondered the rest of the site. When she came back, she said she had spotted another twelve tortoises – twelve! We even saw another one on our way out, making fourteen total. Stray dogs, wild tortoises...Athens is crazy!

After Kerameikos we wandered down Ermou to Kapnikaréa and Mitripoli churches. Kapnikaréa was very cool; it is such a tiny little church but it’s very pretty.

Kapnikaréa church:

Mitripoli church:

After seeing the churches we headed into Plaka for lunch. I had lamb chops, which were good, and Michelle had a Greek salad, which looked amazing – I’ll definitely be getting me some salad tomorrow. We took our time at lunch but still had tons of time to kill, so we just walked around. As we were walking down a random street, we turned a random corner and BAM! ran into Hadrian’s Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus. That is the really cool thing about Athens; the archaeological sites are sprinkled all around the city. You can be taking an easy stroll with your puppy and just run into these amazing ruins. It is very, very cool. We took a few pics of Hadrian’s Arch and then continued to roam.

View of Hadrian's Arch and the Temple of Olympian Zeus from our random street corner:

View of the Acropolis through Hadrian's Arch:

We then walked by the Presidential Palace, taking pictures of the cool guards and the palace itself.

We still had so much time, so we decided to head for the water. We hopped on the metro and went to Piraeus. Turns out you can’t really see the water at Piraeus because of the dozens of ferries, but we did catch one small glimpse of the distant sea and the ferries themselves were pretty impressive.

View of the ferries and our one glimpse of the sea:

After that short stop we made our way back and decided to check out the Omonia area. We found a pharmacy to get some pain killer for my knee (oh happy day!) and then found a patisserie selling baklava (oh super happy day!). We took a big piece to go, went back to the hostel and immediately started chowing down. Oh. My. Goodness. It was soooooooooooooooooooooooo good. I will be getting some more of that tomorrow. ;) Hopefully, however, tomorrow I will be able to secure a fork and knife. Today the patisserie was out of them and only had a small, flimsy plastic spoon that broke on like my third bite. I made it work though - anything for baklava!

A lovely picture of me thoroughly enjoying my baklava:

Alrighty, well that was our day. I have to say, all of our planning has really made a difference. We have been taking as much time as we want at each place and slowly hobbling around, and we still have hours left free at the end of every day. If anyone ever needs help planning a kick-a** vacation, let me know. We have packed so much in, but have felt completely relaxed the whole time. We are warriors.

See you tomorrow!

DAY FIVE: I Hate the Bus

2009-04-03T09:43:00.000-04:00

12 March 09

This morning we woke up and headed out to the airport to catch our flight to Athens. Nothing very exciting happened; the flight was easy. When we got to Athens, however, we had to take the bus into the city because the train wasn’t working. My feet hurt, my knee hurt, I had to pee and the bus ride was making me nauseous. On top of that, the bus was crowded and the group near Michelle and me was talking incessantly – I just wanted to tell them to shut up. For the first ¾ of the 1.5-hour trip we were stuck in the middle of the bus (it was a double bus and we were on the joint), trying to keep our balance on a moving platform with people’s luggage flying everywhere. It was awful. Finally, a guy near me got off so I could sit down. I just closed my eyes and tried not to puke.

Once we got into the city, it was miserable outside – grey, rainy and gross. All of our plans were outside and the only two sites that we had planned for inside were only free on certain days. So we just went to the hostel and got some dinner. Out hostel is a little sketchy, the like 45-year-old receptionist guy kept calling us “sweet girls,” and there were two college-aged girls just hanging out in the tiny lobby smoking. Weird. They did recommend a pretty good spot for dinner. It was just down the street and we had some pork gyros that were very yummy. I think everything should be smothered in tzitziki. After dinner we came back to surf the free internet and read until bed. Hopefully it will be nice outside tomorrow.

As for the language, well, this should be interesting. The receptionist told us how to say “thank you” and we’ve been practicing, but I already forgot. I think we’re in for quite a three days!

...So after writing all of this, we got two roommates (darn). They are from China, their names are Gu and Chen, and they’re studying – of all things – German. Ha!

DAY FOUR: Close Encounters of the Spanish Kind

2009-04-02T11:47:00.037-04:00

11 March 09

This morning should have tipped us off to the interesting day to come. I got in the shower and, the moment I finished putting the shampoo in my hair, the water turned ice cold. And I mean i-c-e cold. It was so cold, it burned. I turned it off and heard Michelle in the shower. I figured I would just wait until she was done and then my hot water would come back. So I got all suds up with soap and waited. Bad idea. When she was finished and I turned my water on it was still frigid. I waited another minute with it off and tried again. Still freezing. By this time I had been in the shower for a while, so I just sucked it up and started rinsing off. Unfortunately, the water then began to trickle down until it completely disappeared. I turned it off and waited a minute – no water. After another minute I got three tiny streams of hot water – blessed flood! I started rinsing as fast as I could, but it disappeared again. I waited another minute and got another quick flash of three hot streams. I kept doing this until I got all of the soap and shampoo off me. All in all, it probably took 20-30 minutes for me to take what I thought would be a 5 minute shower. Awful.

After the shower from hell, we got on the metro and headed to the Catedral de Barcelona, otherwise known as Le Seu. (By the way, Michelle’s shower was also ice cold even though she had water. Nice.) When we got to the cathedral we found the entire front covered in scaffolding and a gigantic poster of what the cathedral will look like when they’re finished restoring it. All you could see were the top spires – so annoying. The inside, however, was very nice. They had all of these different alcoves with various scenes and saints and apostles. Some of them were really amazing; my favorite being covered in gold leaf.

The scaffold-covered Cathedral:

A detail shot of my favorite alcove scene. I think this particular alcove was dedicated to St. Peter, but I'm not sure.

A collage of the La Seu. Click on it to view it larger:

After the Cathedral, we took the back streets to the Museu Picasso We passed a patisserie on the way and I got a chocolate croissant – SO good.

A back street in the gothic district, and a cute shot of Michelle enjoying her morning treat:

The museum was very neat. Everything was organized chronologically, so you could see the progression of Picasso’s work and relate pieces of the same period to one another. My favorite part was the “Las Meninas” collection; an analysis of Velazquez’s famous work. It was so neat to see how someone could take one small section of a painting and interpret and change it a dozen times over to create something completely new. It was also fun, because Lump makes an appearance in about half of those paintings. :) My favorite pieces overall were “Mujer con Mantilla,” the “Las Meninas” piece with the man at the piano, and the view of Monument o Colom. Loved them.

From the museum we made our way to the Parc de la Ciutadella. It was so nice to get there and sit down. My feet (as per usual) were killing me. [NOTE: The feet thing did get better as the trip progressed and our feet got accustomed to all of the walking.] We sat next to the large fountain, watching the kids and people and birds. We another dachshund – a long-haired Chaucer. I just about died. There were also some nuns and...of all things...parrots. Very cool.

A shot of me in front of the main fountain at the Parc de la Ciutadella:

The sweet little dachshund we saw excitedly sniffing around:

A collage of the rest of the park. Click on it to view it larger:

Parrots! (This shot was actually taken at the Arc de Triomf, as my parrot shots from the park weren't as good.)

After the fountain we walked around some more and stopped on a bench to watch some school kids play. (By the way, what’s up with all of the school field trips? We’re seen at least 1 school trip, sometimes 4 or 5, at every site we visit. I wish we took that many field trips when I was in school!) While we were watching the kids, this crazy guy wearing a woman’s red wig started screaming at us in a mix of Spanish, Catalan and like Russian or something. Apparently I had been smiling or laughing at the kids and he was very offended by that – holy crazy. After some brief yelling, he screamed “S**t!” and ran after some kids’ soccer ball. So weird. We took it as a good cue to leave.

After the park incident, we headed up to the Arc de Triomf and took some pictures. Click on it to view it larger:

Then we got lost on some back streets on the way to the Palau de la Música Catalana. There were lots of cute shops on the streets and the Palau was very, very pretty. The colors of the building were so bold and vibrant. It was odd though, because the coolest part of the building is in the back facing these tiny streets – it was impossible to get a good shot of it. We didn’t go inside, because it’s a little expensive.

A few shots of the Palau de la Música Catalana:

I was starving by this point, so we started looking for food. Instead, we ran into the Placa de Catalunya. I was unimpressed by that, so we only stopped for a couple of minutes. During our brief stop about 50 of the 200 pigeons in the square began flying directly at us. It was straight out of “The Birds,” and I was totally squealing and hiding behind Michelle. That’s right – I’m a woos.

Placa de Catalunya and the attack of the birds:

After the birds stopped attacking us we moved on to La Rambla. We were surprised to find a lot of bird stands on La Rambla, selling everything from parakeets to roosters to the smallest hamsters in the world (literally, that’s what they were called). There were also a lot of beautiful flower stands and cool street performers acting as statues and gargoyles and such.

La Rambla:

Finally, we found a spot to eat and it proved very entertaining. Our waiter, Jose Antonio, was from Ecuador and, though he gave a good crack at English, he was very relieved when Michelle told him she spoke Spanish. As he was pouring our water, he spilled a little bit. We didn’t think much of it, but as he left the table he told Michelle to tell me I made him nervous. I asked him why, but he wouldn’t say. I thought maybe it was because I couldn’t speak Spanish, but Michelle thought it was because he had a little crush on me, “Raquel.” He was so cute and funny and nervous, it was adorable. He would speak in Spanish to Michelle and then ask her to ask me a question. It was hilarious. He loved talking to Michelle though, and they struck up a little friendship. As we were leaving, he told Michelle to tell me I had beautiful eyes and that was what made him nervous. How cute is that?! We were by the market by the time she finished telling me, but I just had to go back and get a picture with him. He was so embarrassed, it was fantastic. As if that wasn’t enough, when the restaurant host saw us taking the picture, he got jealous and asked to take a picture with Michelle. Apparently, he didn’t want Jose Antonio getting all the action. Unfortunately for Michelle, he was totally creepy...yikes. We weren’t too scared though, because the restaurant was full of police taking a little break.

Me and Jose Antonio:

Michelle and the creepy host dude:

Oh, I almost forgot, lunch was delicious. I had Pollo de Ajello (chicken and potatoes with a garlic and parsley sauce). It was really, really good. Then for dessert we had chocolate con churros – hello! I was in love. Michelle said the chocolate wasn’t quite thick enough, but I thought it was soooo good.

After dinner we headed back to the market area and walked around. The have tons of stands filled with fresh fruit, veggies, meat and even candy. It was very cool.

La Rambla market. Click on it to view it larger:

Michelle got a fruit salad and we headed down the rest of La Rambla to the Monument a Colom. I was excited to see the monument, because Dave's middle name is Christofer. He was born on Columbus Day, so his parent's gave him the middle name as an homage to Mr. Columbus. I liked looking at the monument and thinking of my honey. :)

Some shots of the Monument a Colom:

A cool building across from the monument:

We had tons of time to kill and my knee started to hurt, so we sat down across from the monument and people-watched. When we finally got up, I was shocked to find I could not bend my knee without feeling quite a bit of pain. I’ve never really hurt a knee before and I had no idea what was going on, but I figured it would go away by the next day. So I hobbled over to Plaça Reial for a quick stop and some photos.

Plaça Reial:

We took the back streets to the Metro but found a patisserie on our way that was selling chocolat con churros. I was all about eating more of that, so we went in. The chocolate was super thick at that place (on Carrer de Ferran a block or two on the right from La Rambla). It was so good, we ordered a second round of churros after we hammered the first batch – yummy!

Here I am enjoying my chocolat con churros:

The only weird thing about the place was that, as we were waiting for the churros to arrive, a large group of police walked in. They had their own little private room in the back and just strolled on in for another break. I guess we were picking good places to eat, because they seemed to be following us!

After our tasty treat we walked some more back streets to the Metro. My knee was hurting really badly by this point, but we totally passed the Metro (with its huge red sign – morons). It once again turned out for the better because we happened upon some old castle or something.

That’s what I love about Europe. You could never go walking in a city in America and just “happen” upon some old, beautiful castle. There is so much history here and thy are so proud of it. They restore it, treasure it, sometimes they just leave it alone – but they almost never destroy it. I don’t think Americans will ever think like that, and it’s sad. When we get the chance to destroy something old and beautiful, we take it and build some ginormous monstrosity in its place. I hate that.

Anywho, I digress. We finally found the Metro and rode our way back to the hostel. Michelle seriously had to pee, so she sprinted back (and I mean sprinted, by the time I turned the first corner – she was gone). Meanwhile, I hobbled slowly along while the locals gave me funny looks. *sigh* We are quite the pair.

So here I am now, at the end of our Barcelona journey. I can’t believe it’s over already. We have seen so much though. I am sad to leave, but excited to see Athens – I can’t even believe I’m going to Greece tomorrow. It doesn’t seem right; it seems like I should be on a plane back home – but I have two weeks before I get on that plane and five other cities to visit. That is just craziness!

Well, I would like to leave you with a quick favorites list:

My Favorite Things About Barcelona (in no particular order):
1. The patisseries. I am not looking forward to leaving the pastries of Europe behind when I got back home. There is nothing like a warm baguette or tasty, fresh croissant in the morning.
2. Chocolat con churros. Enough said.
3. The back streets. I loved just about all of the places we visited, but my favorite part was just walking the back streets and seeing the local restaurants and shops. It’s all so charming and inviting.
4. The architecture. I know I haven’t seen any where else in Europe, but I doubt there is any place like Barcelona as far as the architecture is concerned. To walk down the street and see something like the Sagrada Família or Casa Batlló – incredible inventions of one man’s mind – it’s amazingly impressive and undeniably beautiful.
5. The men. I don’t know what they put in the water here, but Spanish men are GORGEOUS. I had no idea. In my next life, I hope I live in Spain and somehow get some Spaniard to fall in love with me...as long as he’s exactly like Dave. ;)

So that sums it up. Unless anything crazy happens tonight or in the morning, I’ll see you in Athens!

DAY THREE: So Proud of Us

2009-04-01T11:27:00.031-04:00

10 March 09

This morning we woke up at 8:00 a.m., got ready quick (love the water pressure here, by the way) and headed out. Our first stop was the Sagrada Família. That place is beautiful...too bad it’s still under construction. Seriously though, Gaudí is a genius. The detail of that place in unbelievable.

A collage of Sagrada Família. Click on it to view it larger:

We started outside with the Façade of the Passion, depicting Christ’s death. Everything was very angular and sparse. I was just enthralled by all of the scenes, my favorites being Paul’s denial and the knight (not sure where he was from, but I liked him).

Façade of the Passion. Click on it to view it larger:

From there we headed inside. You really couldn’t see too much of the inside because of all of the scaffolding, but there was some beautiful stained glass (the colors were SO bright) and these really cool mini-domes inlaid with gold and green mosaic.

A shot of one of the stained glass windows:

Next, we decided to go up the lift. The view of the city was okay (nothing compared to Tibidabo), but the views of the temple itself were brilliant. The spires, the details, even the construction – loved it.

View from the top of the cathedral:

Some construction shots of the inside and roof:

When we were ready to go back down, Michelle opted for the stairs – all 400 of them! I couldn’t see the steps very well because of the lighting and was worried I would fall down, so I took the lift back down, but was very proud of her.

Michelle at the top of the stairs before her brave descent:

When she came back down, we walked around to the other side, the Façade of the Nativity. GORGEOUS. Being obsessed with crèches, I took a bazillion pictures of the Nativity side. I am hoping to put them together somehow to create some kind of scene I can display in our home. My favorite part of the scene were the horns of the angels, very pretty.

Façade of the Nativity. Click on it to view it larger:

Everything on this side was very full, rounded and almost drippy – a sharp contract to the Passion side. I thought that was such an interesting choice for Gaudí and such an interesting way to evoke the distinct emotions from each event. Brilliant.

A closer look at one scene from each side. Isn't the contrast interesting?:

One last thing from the cathedral was an interesting "DaVinci Code"-esque find. I was looking at one of the doors when I noticed a square with some numbers in it. A bit later I was taking a picture of one of the scenes when I noticed the same number square carved into the side of the cathedral. It must mean something.......I just have no idea what.

Numbers from the door and cathedral outer wall:

After the Sagrada Família, we got a bit lost on our way to Casa Mila (a.k.a. La Padrera) and Casa Batlló. It was still a lovely walk and gave me one of my favorite pictures of Barcelona: this quaint little window with it's blue shutters and charming garden:

We eventually figured out where we were and found the two unique buildings. I know most people are infatuated with La Padrera, but I much preferred Casa Batlló – it is so colorful and different. By this time my feet were screaming in pain, so we stopped on a bench and rested.

La Padrera:

Casa Batlló. The terraces are supposed to be skulls, and the columns are supposed to be bones. (Though at first I thought it was supposed to be a fish. Oops!)

After our rest, we made our way to Parc de Montjuïc. First we went to the Olympic Stadium, my favorite of which was the landscaping of the inside courtyard. It was so gorgeous outside – sunny and breezy – so we took a nice rest and laid out in the courtyard for a while.

A view of the stadium from outside, and a view of the stadium from the inside:

Then we made our way to Castell de Montjuïc, which proved very difficult. We thought we could walk, but we got lost. Then we thought we would take the Castell air cable car, but it was super expensive. Then we thought we’d take this special park bus, but it wasn’t running because it wasn’t summer (of course). Then we thought we’d take the normal bus, but it didn’t come and didn’t come and didn’t come. We were about to call it quits and bag the Castell when the bus finally showed up. Hallelujah! We made it to the Castell, but were less than impressed. At the top, however, was a beautiful view...and ice cream. :) I had a Magnum double chocolate bar – holy delicious! We ate, snapped some photos, and took a couple of photos for this funky couple who wanted all of the pictures taken at like a 45˚ angle (?). They were cute though.

View of the city and Sagrada Família from Castell de Montjuïc:

Our plan was to take the air cable car from the park to Barceloneta beach, but it wasn’t running due to strong winds. That was quite the bummer as we were both really looking forward to it. :(

All right, I have a couple of postcards to write so I’ll have to finish up tomorrow. I promise to get fully up to date.

So after the air cable car bummer, we trekked back to the Metro and walked to Barceloneta beach. It was such a gorgeous day and the boardwalk was nicely crowded; not crazy, but enough to be interesting. I was pining after the sand. I had been imagining the feel o sand on my feet for hours and I was not disappointed – it felt like a massage. We took in the view, picked a spot, sat down and relaxed for a good long time.

Some pics on the beach:

A shot of a nice, fat seagull flying over the ocean and a sea of boat masts in the port:

There were people going up and down the beach selling cerveza (beer) and sunglasses. They must have asked us fifteen times before they realized we were not interested. It was more funny than annoying, only because the same person would ask us twice within like one minute. The other fun thing that happened is that three guys from the group next to us stripped down to shorts and ran into the water – all the way in. Holy cow that must have been freeeeeeeeeezing!!! I felt cold for them, but I loved that I got to watch.

Crazy dudes on the beach:

After the beach we strolled down the boardwalk to Maremàgnum (after reluctantly putting our shoes back on). During our walk to the mall, there was a guy walking his wire-haired dachshund. He was soooooo cute! (The dog, not the guy). We followed after him so I could get a picture, but I never could snap that shot. I was dying to go up to him and ask to pet his dog, but someone else beat me to it and I didn’t want to make the guy stand there any longer. That’s one thing about Barcelona, every one has a dog and the majority of them are small dogs like yorkies and french bulldogs. They’re so cute and they go everywhere. It makes me want to move here so I can take Chaucer with me always. Oh happy thought!

The mall was just okay. It wasn’t nearly as big or as exciting as it’s made out to be. We did find a good restaurant though. I got a salad, Michelle got a crepe, we got chorizo to share (yum) and ended with a delicious ice cream sundae: one scoop chocolate, one scoop straciatella, chocolate cake pieces, chocolate syrup and fresh whipped cream. Oh yeah.

After the mall we came back to the hostel. On our way, I saw a bunch of guys playing soccer even though it was like 9:00 at night. They sure love their soccer over here!

Once we got back, I wrote in here some and we went to bed. I put in my ear plugs, pulled down my eye mask and slept like a baby. Night night!

DAY ONE & DAY TWO: The Longest Journey Ever!

2009-03-31T09:00:00.028-04:00

NOTE: all of my european posts will be written using capital letters. i know, i know - what happened? instead of typing them twice, i plan on copying and pasting my posts to an electronic version of my journal which i would prefer to have written normally for posterity sake. so enjoy this little treat - when the vacation posts end, the capital letters die. also, all of these entries will be written out exactly as i wrote them, so there might be odd interruptions referring to tiredness and sleep. just a warning so you don’t get confused.

09 March 09

The day before I left was a big day and night. I finished all of my last minute details, packed, drove to Charlotte, went to see “The Marriage of Figaro” at Opera Carolina with Barb, and then stayed up until 4:00 a.m. marking maps and wasting time. I wanted to get as little sleep as possible so I could sleep on the plane. I woke up at 7:30 a.m. (after a three sweet hours of Chaucer snuggles) and drove to the airport.

The flight to Miami was uneventful, though I was surprised by how ugly Miami is. Also, the Miami airport is incredibly efficient; that place works like clockwork. We landed and went straight to our gate, which was only a few feet away; they loaded our full 757 in like 10 minutes; then we pulled away from the gate and took off right away. It was amazing. Super props to Miami International – why can’t all airports work like that? The flight to JFK was stifling hot. I seriously thought I was going to pass out. I sat next to a very nice woman from the city (who I was wicked jealous of, because she had just bought a necklace from Tiffany’s...nice). She had been visiting her brother and we chatted about him, the South, my trip and the unbearable heat of the plane. Of course, that was only the last few minutes of the flight; I spent the majority of the flight trying to sleep and not die of heatstroke.

The happy traveler in JFK waiting to board her plane to Europe.

The flight to Barcelona was, in a word, long. I bought my ticket like five months ago and had chosen a window seat for easy sleeping and my very first view of Europe. As I got to my seat, two girls asked if I would switch to the inside aisle seat (the left side of the center group of seats) so they could sit together. I hated to be rude, but I was not giving up my window seat, plus they were right across the aisle from each other – a whole two feet. I apologized and told them I really wanted my window seat and sat down. They talked crap about me for the next thirty minutes in some made-up language (seriously, they were like 20 years old and had a made up language...wow). They also made really “adorable” comments like, “Let me take a picture of you since you’re so far away – I don’t want to forget what you look like!” The funny thing was, the guy in front of the girl sitting in the aisle seat had no one sitting next to him. Did they ask him to move back one aisle seat so they could sit in the aisle and center seat? Nope. Then the people in front of us asked the flight attendant if there were two other seats together because their light didn’t work. She came back and told them there were two seats, but they were by the bathroom. The couple declined the change and, though the girls had been listening intently to see if there were two seats, they looked at each other and shook their heads “no.” So really, they didn’t care about sitting together, they cared about sitting together in two good seats. So ridiculous. Anyway, the flight sucked. I couldn’t get comfortable, there was a baby screaming its head off, and the air was so cold I thought I was going to get a nose bleed. Long story longer, I only got three to four hours of sleep. Ouch. But once I saw my first peek of Europe (which happened to be the Spanish Alps), I couldn’t have cared less – I was in heaven.

I had a bit of trouble finding the airport Metro to get into the city, but I figured it out eventually. My first glimpse of Barcelona was the area around the airport and was totally ghetto fabulous. I was a bit concerned.

Outside the Barcelona Airport:

But as I emerged out of the Metro tunnel onto Passeig de Gracia I was overcome. I snapped a few pictures and started heading toward what I thought was the direction of the bus station. When I ran into La Padrera, I realized I was a *little* off course, but I didn’t care as I was too happy sightseeing.

My first views of Barcelona:

Passeig de Gracia has a lot of upscale stores. As I passed Chanel, I saw this guy washing the window. As I was about to take my shot, he looked up and struck this lovely pose. Apparently, he wasn't thrilled about getting his pictures taken. Oh well!

We had planned to meet at the Arc de Triomf bus station, but I had a bit of trouble finding it as it really isn’t that close to the Arc de Triomf. The Arc was easy to find, but the bus station was kind of hidden. Luckily, I ran into two nice Jehovah’s Witnesses from London who walked me there (with the promise that I would read their pamphlet, which I did). After walking around the bus station for a while, Michelle and me were finally united. Yay!

A peek at the Arc de Triomf (more pics to come, as we visited it again on purpose later):

A cool building (but not the bus station...) next to Arc de Triomf:

The quintessential European shot - a moped and a pidgeon:

OK, too tired – more tomorrow.

Back after another long day. So where was I? Michelle and I finally found each other and made our way to the hostel. Our hostel, Feetup Hostel – Garden House is on the outskirts of the city and we love it. It is cute, clean and the people are very friendly. [I highly recommend it to anyone who travels to Barcelona.] We dropped off our stuff and headed straight back out. Our first stop was Parc Guëll, a city park designed by Antoni Gaudí (who designed like half the city). The directions to get there were easy enough, but we quickly learned how hilly Barcelona can be – my legs were burning.

Oh, before I go on I should mention my feet. Something weird happened on the plane. I took my shoes off when I got on the plane in JFK, but when I went to put them back on I found my feet had swollen to the size of elephant feet. Seriously, they were HUGE. I think it must have been a combination of the altitude and the weird positions I was trying to sleep in. Anyway, my elephant feet have been the cause of much pain, but also much humor. :)

So, as I was saying, the trip to Parc Guëll was quite the workout. One of the hills was so steep, they installed an escalator...’nough said.

The escalator hill (yeah, so glad I didn't have to walk up that):

We were very happy when we got to the park and it was beautiful. Gaudí is amazing. I could never have the creativity to create such a place: stone mosaic columns, each with a different design; “lollipop” columns on a slant; a bridge with little alcoves for the birds to nest in; a ceiling with inverted circles interspersed with large, circular mosaic art pieces. It truly is a work of art. We saw some beautiful views, a ton of school field-trippers, and a couple of musicians. There was even a guy playing a Spanish guitar; I wish I could say it was as romantic as in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona,” but the field trip kids screaming kind of detracted from the music.

Pics of me at the entrance and with the famous dragon:

A collage of pics of Parc Guëll (my first collage, very excited). Click on it to view it larger:

There was even a school inside the park. How cool would it be to go to school there??? I couldn't resist taking a pic of the kids in they're little smocks:

After the Park, we headed to the metro to go to Tibidabo. About this time, a funny thing happened: Michelle became haunted by Germany. At the Park there were people speaking German everywhere, on the way to the Metro we saw a sign in German and a German pharmacy. The haunting continues to this day; even our roommate is German – ha!

Also on our way, we saw this little delight in the window of a book store:

The trip to Tibidabo was, to say the least, interesting. We waited forever for a tram that doesn’t run during the week until summer, then took a bus that was supposed to go to the top of the mountain one stop because the line had been shortened. We were sooooo annoyed. But the trip was worth it, because Tibidabo was fantastic. The façade of the Temple de Sagrat Cor is beautiful. We took the lift to the top and were breathless – you could see all of Barcelona. It was gorgeous.

A collage of Temple de Sagrat Cor. Click on it to view it larger:

Michelle and me at the top of the Temple, and Michelle's hair blowing in the crazy wind (one of my favorite pictures of the trip):

After we spent ten minutes on the first roof, we realized you could go higher. So we climbed the steps (painfully) and were even more swept away. We spent another chunk of time up there and then realized we could go even higher. Holy crap, we were SO high about the city. It was a-m-a-z-i-n-g. We were literally two or three feet away from the base of the statue at the very top of the Temple.

At the tippy-top looking up and looking out at the city:

It was incredible and totally worth the 2,00€. There was one drawback though: it was frickin’ freezing! Michelle thought she had frostbite – seriously, it was that cold. And the wind was blowing crazy hard. But it was completely worth it. We were finally done and I hobbled my elephant feet back down (seriously, I looked ridiculous trying to get down those stairs), and we were both in serious pain. We took one last view of Barcelona, but then I looked at my watch and said, “Should we get back to the tram?” Good thing I looked! When we got to the door, the guy was locking it – we just made it. We would have been sleeping at the top of Tibidabo...not cool.

Our next stop was a quick peek at the FC Barcelona stadium. We made it there and then headed back to the hostel. We asked our hostel receptionist for a good place and she directed us to a street with lots of good places...if only we could have found our way there. We got lost about ten times, ended up eating at Pans & Company (a Spanish chain restaurant which was quite tasty), only to find the street we were looking for was right across from where we were. Lovely. But it was okay, dinner was good and the walk was lovely. I just love the area our hostel is in. If I ever move to Barcelona, that’s where I would live – it’s much quieter and very charming.

So that’s it for day one. We got home, took off our shoes (oh bliss!), tucked ourselves in and passed out.

i'm back!

2009-03-26T14:26:00.002-04:00

after the most amazing trip of my entire lifetime, i am finally back in america. i wish i could say i am happy to be back, but really i wish i could have just flown dave and chaucer over to milan and moved right in. i am SO in love with europe and i can't wait to tell you all about it. some time in the next few days, i will be starting a special series of my trip. i kept a journal and updated it every day with all of our adventures, and every day i will posting the entries of my journal with corresponding pics. first, however, i have to import and organize all 738 of said pictures - yikes. see you soon!

farewell (adiós, αντίο, addio, abschied)

2009-03-08T01:56:00.004-05:00

it is 3:00 a.m. and i am trying to hold out on sleep as long as possible, so i can snooze the majority of tomorrow and escape too terrible jet lag. my bag is packed. my maps are marked. my itineraries are printed. my passport lies in wait. it honestly has not sunk in that i am about to board a plane bound for barcelona, spain. i cannot actually picture myself walking the streets of six different european cities - the idea amazes me. that being said, i am more than ready to be shocked, amazed, entertained, thrilled and awestruck by the entire experience.

i am excited to see real history and visit places that have been around for thousands of years, not just hundreds. i am excited to be surrounded by people speaking something other than english. i am excited to see people drive on the wrong side of the road. i am excited to eat authentic food. i am excited to get lost and have absolutely, positively no clue where i am or what any of the signs say. and i am excited to share all of it with a great friend.

i promise to take hundreds of pictures. i promise to write down my exciting adventures every day. i promise to send postcards. and i promise to brag about this trip constantly for at least the next full year.

thank you for all of your well wishes and excitement. also, thank you for your jealousy - it makes me feel that much more lucky. i will miss you all and promise to write as soon as i get home. who knows, maybe i'll even post an update or two from abroad. until then - farewell. I'M GOING TO EUROPE!!!!!

spring daffodils and snow

2009-03-08T01:29:00.006-05:00

a few weeks ago, we got our first daffodil bloom. a week or two after that, we came home to a beautiful, bright, sunny welcome from our little (also crappy and sparse) flower bed.

a week after that, we woke up to a much different sight.

poor little flowers! it was a beautiful day though. the snow was everywhere. we've seen a dusting and even one covering snow here in north carolina, but never this much and definitely never hanging on the trees. it was so pretty, it made me miss upstate new york. until i had to drive in it.

beautiful, huh? the most beautiful part, however, is that it was all gone by the end of the day. i love nc. :)

silly, little boy

2009-02-16T20:12:00.011-05:00

living with chaucer always adds interest and excitement to our lives, but this week he has been in rare form. first off was movie night. when we watch movies, the three of us hunker down on the couch and snuggle in. i lay sideways at one of the couch with my feet on dave's lap at the other end. chaucer either curls up next to me or curls up on dave's lap, sharing the blankets with me. well, apparently i was hogging the blanket this time, because chaucer decided to do this:

i mean, are you serious??? i think it is actually illegal to be that cute.

then, yesterday, he wanted to play fetch. a few months ago he got a new toy from the winters family, a stuffed doc the dwarf. he loves this toy and plays with it all the time. of course, within the first few hours of his owning it, he had taken all the stuffing out and scattered it around the house. well, when he brought me his chosen toy for fetch yesterday, i was a bit surprised:

to add insult to little doc's injury, later in the afternoon he brought me this to play with:

poor doc, he never saw it coming. *sigh*

it also happened to be a beautiful week in north carolina, and chaucer was truly enjoying it through his favorite activity - riding in the car. check out those ears flapping in the wind:

i think it is safe to say we have the cutest dog ever. done. it's a fact.

my first blog tagging

2009-02-12T20:52:00.004-05:00

okay, so my friend liz tagged me in her blog. i know most people would find it annoying, but i was actually rather excited. i've never been tagged before and i've always thought it was pretty cool. so thank you, liz. :)

here are the details:

1. go to my documents/pictures.
2. go to my 6th file folder.
3. go to my 6th picture.
4. blog about it.
5. tag 6 people to do the same.

this picture was taken last year in oregon when we were out there for dave's sister's wedding. it was my first time in the pacific northwest and i was blown away - it is beautiful! we stayed right on the ocean. in fact, the ceremony was in a room overlooking the ocean. it was a lovely ceremony, but i had a hard time concentrating because i couldn't stop looking out the window seaching for whales. sorry, jenny. :) on one of the last days of the trip, we went on a hike with dave's brother and sister-in-law, rob and amy. we saw a huge blow hole and enjoyed one of the most beautiful views i've ever seen as the fog rolled off the shore. this picture is of amy and me as we took a moment to pause on the trail. don't i look ginormous???

as for tagging, my options are limited. sorry if you don't want to be tagged, but i only have seven friends with blogs.

i tag: amy, natalie, michelle, wendy, kelly w. and alisa

.....i.....can't......stop......

2009-02-04T11:48:00.003-05:00

so, i have found that every couple of years i go through some kind of grammar phase. a what? i know, i'm sure that is like the geekiest thing you've ever read - a grammar phase??? allow me to explain. about ten years ago, i realized i don't like capital letters. a couple years after that, i became addicted to parentheses. a year or two later, i realized i hate exclamation points. about two years after that, i fell out of love with the oxford comma. sometimes these phases stick, as in the case of the capital letters; other times they pass, as in the case of the parentheses. but every couple of years, i go through a new phase and pick up a new habit in my writing.

yesterday, i realized i have become addicted to the ellipsis. for the past year or so, i have begun using ellipses in almost everything i write. lately, it has gotten really bad. i can't type an email, write a message on facebook or make a new post on my blog without including an ellipsis. even one sentence posts or replies have to include an ellipsis. i try not to use them, but i can't help it - i am compelled. sometimes, there is more than one...in every paragraph. it has gotten out of control. as a result, i am banning myself from ellipses. no more will i allow those serial dots to control my writing.

so, barring the one in the previous paragraph, the next time you see me use an ellipsis, i want you to call me out on it. make a big, all caps, exclamation point crazy comment along the lines of "HEY GRAMMAR GEEK!!! NO MORE ELLIPSES, YOU FREAK!!!" seriously, i need your help. it needs to stop.

i figure, after a good long ban, i will be ready to use ellipses more responsibly........maybe. crap.

my travels...pathetic, i know

2009-02-02T17:03:00.006-05:00

so, my friend wendy has this map of america on her blog with all of the states she's visited in red. i thought, "wow, that would be cool to do. i've been lots of places in the u.s." so i went to the site and filled it out. guess what, i haven't even been to half of the states. all of my other friends have like 36, 41, 48 states on their map.

visited 22 states (44%)
Create your own visited map of The United States or try another Douwe Osinga project

so then i thought, well hey, while i'm feeling like a loser, i might as well start a world map. at least at the end of march i go back and add a bunch of places to this one and maybe feel a little better about myself....

visited 3 states (1.33%)
Create your own visited map of The World or try another Douwe Osinga project

someday, i'll have this awesome map full of red, i just know it.

i thought i moved to the south....

2009-01-21T11:50:00.005-05:00

so for the past week or so, it has been absolutely FREEZING here. and i don't mean north carolina freezing, i mean like actually freezing with temperatures in the 20s and 30s. on monday, dave and i went on a little date. when we came out of dinner it was snowing.

when we came home from the movies....it looked like this:

the next morning, it looked like this:

WHAT THE HECK?!?!?!

the sounds of non-silence

2009-01-13T15:41:00.004-05:00

when dave and i first got married, it would take me forever to fall asleep, because he was over on his side of the bed sawing down entire forests. i would bump him and jostle him and hit him, trying to get him to roll over and be quiet. after a while, i learned to fall asleep despite his snoring, but i still always wished he could somehow learn to stop.

then, a few months ago, i had the chance to visit my mom in ithaca. my sister was also there and slept with her daughter in the guest room, so i shared a bed with my mom. it was one of the most nerve-wracking exeriences. she slept so quietly that i would start freaking out thinking she had passed away in her sleep. i would actually lean over her side of the bed and put my hand in front of her nose to check she was still breathing. how on earth could someone be so silent at night??? when i got home and laid down beside my snoring husband, i was so happy to have such a powerful indicator of his being alive.

then this weekend, while dave was away visiting family, i would stay up super late until i was uber-tired so that i could fall asleep quickly. well, one night, right as i was crawling into bed, chaucer started barking at the front door. holy crap, it scared the dickens out of me. i turned the outside lights on, peeped out all of the windows and triple-checked all of the doors to make sure they were locked. then i put the phone and a butcher knife on my nightstand so that i would be prepared should anyone actually be out there. (i know...i'm crazy.) even though i knew i was safe, i could NOT fall asleep. everything was so quiet that i could hear every creak and bump of the house, plus all of the outside noises like far away dogs barking and distant police sirens. it was totally terrifying and all i could wish for was to have dave home - not only for the security of his manliness, but also for the deafening sound of his snoring.

finally, he came home yesterday afternoon. he went to bed about thirty minutes before me, and as i laid my head on my pillow i felt a deep sense of comfort. he was sound asleep, snoring loudly - i couldn't hear a thing. i smiled to myself, thinking about how much i used to loathe the noise, then i drifted off to sleep like a little baby. i guess seven years of marriage can get a person used to anything...

well, hello there!

2009-01-10T22:07:00.004-05:00

first off, i want to apologize for being gone for so long. i had a great vacation in utah, and needed some time to relax when i got home.... but that is no excuse for leaving you high and dry, longing for my charm and wit. ha!

to make up for it, i am going to confess something very few people know. in fact, i'm not sure anyone but my hubby knows.................*sigh*....................i love "the bachelor." there, i said it. the first season i watched was the one with jesse palmer, and dave actually watched that one with me - that guy was a total moron. we loved to sit back, eat some popcorn and laugh at him and the stupid girls he chose to date. it was so entertaining. after that season, i didn't watch again for a long time until they had a naval officer on the show - hello! nothing brings a larger smile to my face than seeing a man in that crisp, white uniform. *cough* well, except dave, of course. *cough cough* since then, i've caught every episode of both "the bachelor" and "the bachelorette." i usually like "the bachelorette" better, because the women are generally chosen from the previous "bachelor" season; therefore, i think there's a better chance of actual success. but i also like "the bachelor," because a house full of women creates such better t.v. drama than a house full of guys.

so i was so happily surprised this year when they brought back my most favorite contestant ever to be the new bachelor - jason mesnick. jason was one of the final two men on the last season of "the bachelorette," and seems like one of the cutest, sweetest, smartest, most fun, genuine guys. he is a single father, and his son, tyler, only makes him that much more loveable.

see why he's my favorite? look at that smile!

the new season started this week, and i'm already excited for him - there are some cute girls there. there is also at least one girl i don't like AT ALL, and i hope he gets rid of her sooner rather than later. one of the most exciting female discoveries was melissa, who was on "dallas cowboys cheerleaders" for a couple of seasons and is a total doll. i was holding my breath at the rose ceremony, praying he was going to give her a rose. when he did, i squealed and clapped like a little girl getting a new barbie.

it was then i realized just how big of a dork i am. because i watch "the bachelor" - faithfully.

FINALLY!!!

2008-12-15T17:21:00.002-05:00

okay, so shortly before dave's birthday (october 12), i had written to his mother and told her dave really wanted a wii. it is not something he would ever ask for himself, but he has been in love with them ever since they came out two years ago. i wanted to give her lots of time to find one, since they are seriously hard to come by. she set off to best buy and they told her they received shipments every tuesday and thursday, but that you couldn't reserve a wii - you just had to come in often to land one. well, that may be great for some people, but my in-laws live in the middle of nowhere of the middle of nowhere...it takes them one hour to drive to the nearest best buy. but, being the loving mom she is, she said she would give it a try.

well, later that week i went to target to do a little shopping. as per usual, i got side-tracked and ended up in the wii aisle looking at games. (by the way, why is it impossible to make a *quick* run to target???) i had been standing in front of the games case no more than ten seconds when a target saleswoman came up to me and said, "before i open the case, do you want it?" i looked at her cluelessly and said, "do i want what?" she smirked and said, "do you want it?" i looked down at what she was holding and saw a white box with the gray letters w-i-i written on the front. i snapped my eyes back up to hers and asked, completely shocked, "is that an actual...a real...?" she smiled and said, "yes! do you want it?!?!" i quickly yelled "HECK YEAH!" and ran behind her to the register. from that moment on, i could not stop beaming. i just could not believe i got so lucky. i mean, i have a friend whose fiance called every electronics store in binghamton every day for like four months before he finally found one. how on earth did i get so lucky??? i couldn't wait to tell my mother-in-law.

............but as i drove down the street to our house, i saw a gray truck in our driveway - dave was home!!! it was only noon, and he usually doesn't get home until like 4:00pm. i had no idea what to do. i ran in the house and, not meaning to be so rude, semi-yelled, "what are you doing home?!" he was obviously a little taken aback; i'm usually thrilled when he gets home early. i can't even remember if i gave him time to answer... i closed the door and ordered him to stay in his room. (sorry, babe.) then i grabbed the phone, went outside, called his mom to tell her the good news, got the wii out of the car and took it in. i wasn't sure where to hide it, but i eventually decided on the closet in my office. i was SO paranoid he would find it.

the other problem was that it was dave's birthday that weekend, and his mom had already told him she was sending him two best buy gift cards. well, i didn't want him to use them, because i knew he would just buy video games for his playstation. so me and her had to make up this elaborate scheme to steal the gift cards, quickly come up with some other present, and try to keep him from getting suspicious. i don't think it worked too well, but eventually dave just said, "whatever..." and let it go. now all we had to do was keep the secret for over two months! let me tell you, it was torture. serious torture. and when i say i kept it a secret for two months, i mean i only told my mom, two friends we were staying with the weekend of dave's birthday, and (maybe) my sister...can't remember. that's it. three, maybe four people. and let me tell you, you don't know how much people talk about the wii until you're trying to keep it a secret that you have one... *sigh* it was not fun. at all.

but finally, this weekend dave's parents came into town for early christmas and we got to give dave his wii. he was so shocked when he opened it. he looked at the box and was like "wii sports? what the heck?" then we all kind of looked at him. then he looked at the box again, thought for a second and looked up. his eyes got all wide and his mouth dropped, and he goes, "you got me a wii?!?!?! OH MY GOSH!!!" then he hugged it. :) it was so funny. seriously though, it made the pain of keeping the secret totally worth it.

i must say, however, that even better than watching him open it, was playing games with his parents later that day. they were hilarious! we had so much fun. and we are still having so much fun. in fact, dave is bowling as i type. :)

but anyway, the whole point of this long story is that the secret is finally out - DAVE GOT A WII FOR CHRISTMAS!!!! YAY!!!! :D

who is kathy smith?

2008-12-14T20:22:00.003-05:00

apparently a lot of people don't know who kathy smith is, so i figured i should explain... she is a fitness diva with tons of workout dvds and such - and she kicks your butt. well, she at least kicks my butt.

kathy smith

2008-12-08T15:43:00.002-05:00

....is a sick, masochistic b#@*%. don't tell me this is the last time through if this is not, indeed, the last time through. frickin' jerk.

derek zoolander

2008-12-04T11:35:00.017-05:00

***WARNING: the contents of this post are extremely adorable. if you have a heart condition, low blood sugar, high blood pressure, are pregnant or may become pregnant, please consult a doctor before reading this post.***

last week we got a real treat. our friends recently joined the happiness bandwagon and adopted a dachshund puppy. his name is derek zoolander (because he's really, really, ridiculously good looking), and he is SOOOO cute! they took a trip to biltmore estate last sunday and asked us to watch derek while they were gone. we had such a fun time with him, and he and chaucer totally hit it off. in fact, derek reminds me a lot of chaucer when he was a puppy - he loves to play, but when he's not playing he's all about snuggling under a blankey. of course we had to take pictures and movies galore of this cute-fest... oh, and no making fun of my puppy voice - i can't help it, they're too cute to just talk normally.

they played together - sorry about the butt-sniffing at the end, but i had to include the little kiss...

they ate together - we were forced to move chaucer's bowl into the living room, because he would not leave derek's side

they chased each other - notice how smart derek is by the little shortcut he takes. oh, and chaucer is fine. he just got a little choked up...

they snuggled on dave together

they played on the bed together - no, we did not let derek follow chaucer and jump off the bed...we're not that stupid.

chaucer even taught derek a few tricks about puppy dog eyes. for instance, how they're cuter when given from a low angle...

i guess the little guy had fun, because he decided it was snuggle time and fell asleep on my lap

dave and i have decided our next dachshund puppy will be a smooth-hair dapple just like derek. after all, he is really, really, ridiculously good looking. and who wouldn't want to witness this cuteness every day? oh my...maybe it isn't such a good idea...can you imagine???

i'm starting to get a little angry...

2008-11-25T09:30:00.002-05:00

i've already told you about my obsession with "the hills." well, one of my other favorite shows is "the office." there have been some fantastic episodes this season, and i am so in love with how things are going with jim and pam. i do, however, have one rather large complaint: why the heck did you get rid of holly?!?!?!?!?! seriously, every week i think to myself, "she must be coming back this week..." but the episode comes and goes and, while holly is always mentioned, she has yet to return. it's really starting to piss me off. you can't create a character that wonderful and take her away after a handful of episodes. you can't introduce chemistry that good and a relationship that entertaining and then take it away after a handful of episodes. it's not okay. and if they don't bring her back soon, i may have to write an angry letter to the writers. and i'm not even joking - that is how upset i am. so, heads of nbc and writers of "the office," get on the ball on bring holly back!!! before i do something i regret...

more sleep masks

2008-11-20T11:38:00.010-05:00

so i got a few orders for sleep masks, and thought i would share my creations. i have so much fun making these!

the complete collection:

the four new designs:

i even made a manly one for dave... :)

they're still only $5.00, so let me know if you want one. they're great gifts too; just stick one in a cute basket with a few small lotions and such from bath & body works. adorable!

take that, haters

2008-11-17T22:12:00.005-05:00

as i drove home from target today, the radio dj was discussing the end of "trl" on mtv and the finale they had sunday night. i was reading so i didn't watch it. and if i wasn't reading, i wouldn't have watched it anyway.... but the dj got really excited as he announced the #1 "trl" video of all time. i figured it would be britney spears or justin timberlake or beyonce. but no. it was so much better than that. and as the announcement rolled through my speakers, i felt vindicated for all of the ridicule and torture my family and friends put me through for years simply because i couldn't help but love them. so without further ado, i introduce you to the #1 "trl" video of all-time: *n sync, "god must have spend a little more time on you."

hikin' in hick'ry

2008-11-17T21:16:00.005-05:00

last week dave and i took a hike up bakers mountain, which is just a few minutes down the road. it was a great hike, even though there were some rough spots that seriously got our hearts pumping and legs cramping. but it was worth it for a beautiful view at the top....and to watch chaucer hike - he's so dang cute! so here are some pics of our little adventure

dave warming his hands in a chimney from an oooooold house on the trail

dave snapped a shot of this gorgeous fall red tree on the way up

the three of us enjoying the view

a video of the view from the top (here's some commentary for you, ange)

i snapped a shot of this cool glowing tree on the way down

here's a quick video of chaucer's hiking skills (he's like a little horse!). oh, and i couldn't rotate the video so it's sideways....sorry.

so there you go, our little hike up bakers mountain. right after we got home we had to run to church for a 2-hour choir practice, and by the time i got home i was SO exhausted i couldn't even get my jeans off to get into bed. not to mention the fact that i legs hurt reeeeaaaally bad...i am so out of shape. but it was fun and we're hoping to hike a few other trails around the area soon, and we can do that because it never really gets cold here. :D

who needs bob vila?!

2008-11-11T15:10:00.006-05:00

a few months ago our dishwasher decided to break. we had a repairman come look at it, thinking the repair would be around $60 or so. well, as it turns out, the control panel broke and there's no way to fix it except to replace it, which would be $250 without labor. the repairman was kind enough to tell us we should just get a new dishwasher. so for the past few months we've been trying to find a great deal on a dishwasher. we finally found one we liked that was cheap enough...except for delivery and installation, which would be another $119. there was NO WAY i was paying that. the repairman had told me dishwashers are relatively easy to install, so i told dave we were doing it ourselves. dave picked the new dishwasher up in his truck, we moved out the old one and put the new one in. i must say, i am super impressed with us. it really was pretty easy, and it was fun to be handy together. plus, it was free! so i just had to brag about it and show you some pics of our handiwork.

our old dishwasher that decided to break for no reason...

a close-up of my handiwork with the power supply connection to the new dishwasher.....which i did while dave was out at the hardware store - that's right, i did it all by myself!

here's dave connecting one hose to the dishwasher and me replacing the old connection to the sink drain

and voila - we're done!

farewell, hot chocolate

2008-11-08T11:03:00.002-05:00

as most of you know, i was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis in may. this lovely chronic condition has banned me from all things acidic, spicy or caffeinated for the rest of my life; including tomatoes, aged cheeses, peanut butter, fruit and chocolate. i know, it's horrible, isn't it? don't feel too bad for me, though. i have lost a lot of cravings and found some truly delicious recipes. the chocolate, however, still breaks my heart.

before moving to north carolina, i spent my entire life in upstate new york and central pennsylvania - cold, cold, oh-so-bitterly cold places. during the six months of winter we were *blessed* with, i got very accustomed to drinking a nice cup of hot chocolate in front of the fire. there is nothing more comforting on a cold day than a steamy cup of cocoa. well, the week that we went up to philadelphia was frigid! one day, as amy and i were out running errands, she suggested we stop at barnes & noble for a treat. as everyone knows, i will never turn down a trip to barnes & noble. but as i stood at the cafe counter, all i wanted was hot chocolate. i looked for something i could eat, but the pickings were slim. then i remembered a conversation i had had with dave and my friend julie, where they suggested trying a flavored milk steamer. i wasn't very optimistic, but i figured i would try, so i ordered a hazelnut steamer. oh my holy delicious!!! it was exactly what i was looking for. warm, flavorful and totally comforting.

i became so excited. here i had the answer to the cravings that were already creeping up on me. i never thought i would find anything that could comfort me as much as hot chocolate. but i have happily been proven wrong. so, i would now like to bid a final farewell to hot chocolate. you have been a wonderful friend on cold winter nights, but it is time to move on.....to delicious flavored steamers.

holy adorable!....2

2008-11-07T11:04:00.006-05:00

i was spending my lunch break browsing etsy for treasury items, when i came across the most adorable pair of baby booties i have ever seen. i immediately shared them with my friend heather, and we decided to buy each other a pair. i know what you're all thinking, "umm, rachel, you don't have any kids..." no, i don't. but i will someday. and when i do, they need to have these booties. we decided the brown pair are unisex, so that's what we're going for. i mean, tell me they're not to die for!

so thank you gracious may for making such unbelievably adorable booties!

flair success

2008-11-04T01:24:00.004-05:00

as part of my wasting-time-on-the-internet regiment, i enjoy creating flair buttons for the "pieces of flair" application on facebook. (yes, i am that pathetic...) well, a couple of weeks ago i made a flair button based on my blog banner because 1) i couldn't find a bookworm buttom i liked and 2) i love my blog banner :). i submitted the button in the directory under the terms "read," "reading," "book," "books" and "bookworm." now, i've had other very successful flair creations, such as my piece of ithaca flair and even my "the hills" flair. but they've never meant much because...well...there isn't much ithaca-based flair to begin with and most of the "the hills" flair is rather pathetic. but there is A LOT of flair for reading and such, and most of it is really awesome. but apparently i underestimated myself....

i am pleased to announce that my bookworm flair is now the most popular piece of flair for "read," "reading," "books" and "bookworm." how freaking cool is that?!?! i'm still buried in the "book" category, but most of that is taken up by "harry potter" and "twilight," so i don't feel so bad about it. i never expected the button to take off at all, much less to become the most popular - and so quickly!

so i just had to share, because it makes me feel pretty awesome...which is actually kind of sad. :)

introducing bobbo dos, a.k.a. logan edwards

2008-11-03T22:01:00.005-05:00

speaking of philadelphia, the reason we drove up was to meet dave's new nephew, logan. we stayed with rob and amy for a week to help out and hang with the little guy. he is so stinkin' cute, i just had to share a few photos...

logan up close and personal

the happy uncle

the best thing about logan is his love for his pinky fingers. he always has to have them poking up from the bottle, poking out of the blankets, or just poking out into mid-air. one night as i tucked him in, he lifted his arms above his head as i tucked the blanket under his arms. after he was all tucked in, i gently pressed his arms down on his chest. even with his arms down, his hands were still poking up, so i gently pressed them onto the blanket. he snuggled his little hands onto the blankey, but his little pink finger was still poking up. so i gently laid his pinky finger down onto his hand - but it popped right back up. so i pressed it down again - it popped up again. i did it about two more times, and it kept popping right back up! i started laughing so hard. i called amy in and showed her. i think i pressed that little pinky down about 20 times, but it popped up every time. we were dying! so here's a little shot of the "bobbo dos pinky poke"...

*sigh*...such a cutie. we had a great time with logan and totally bonded with the little guy......too bad he won't remember us the next time we see him!

i love sleep...especially now!

2008-11-03T21:47:00.004-05:00

so last week dave and i took a trip to philadelphia. this trip included a loooooong nine hour drive there, and another loooooooong nine hour drive home. dave wanted to leave at o'dark thirty saturday morning, and i knew i would have to sleep in the car if i was to be of any use at all that day. i have no problem sleeping in the car, but it takes me forever to get comfortable because i can never position my shirt/blanket/pillow/whatever to support my head, cover my eyes and yet not stifle my breathing. so i decided to prepare ahead of time and make myself a sleep mask. i headed over to hancock fabrics and shopped around until i finally found this adorable satiny shopping-themed fabric. i then found some felt, a cute pink grosgrain ribbon and got to work. i must say, i am seriously impressed with myself, because this sleep mask turned out ridiculously cute! it also worked like an absolute charm - i was comfy and snoozing away for at least half the drive up. it also came in handy for an afternoon nap. ;)

check out my handywork:

i love it so much, i decided to make another one. i saw these really cute paisley iron-on appliques i think i'm going to use. i'll upload some pics when i'm done.

i know you're probably coveting my new treasure, but there's no need. i'd be happy to make a few for any who request them - just pay for supplies (about $5). if you happen to be michelle, no need to request - you're getting one free of charge for our fantastic european voyage. :D

the cutest thing ever

2008-10-20T21:06:00.005-04:00

so, if you know me, you know how much i love my dog. he is the CUTEST little boy in the world...and say this as a fact, not an opinion. as proof, check out this picture my friend took. her and her family dogsit chaucer often when we go out of town. the last time they dogsat, their daughter, kendal, was doing her chores like the good little girl she is, which included cleaning her room. she decided to put chaucer in a more convenient place so he wouldn't be in the way while she cleaned. when kelly came home, she just about died laughing and couldn't resist snapping a shot of it. i'm so glad she did - it's SOOO cute!!!

hey, little boy!

i love when people can make fun of themselves

2008-10-20T10:47:00.002-04:00

after pumping up "saturday night live" a couple of weeks ago, they let me down this week....not so funny. they did, however, have three savers: the first was the sarah palin opening, the second was the sarah palin rap (wow), and the third was this clip. now, before you watch it, you must watch the "mark wahlberg talks to animals" clip i posted a couple of weeks ago (part of the "thank you, saturday night live" post). if you watch this clip without watching that one, you won't really get it. but if you watch that skit first, i guarantee you will love, love, LOVE this one!

dreams

2008-10-18T11:14:00.006-04:00

i'm not sure if it's just the people i know or if it's common, but most of my friends and family don't remember their dreams most of the time. sometimes they might remember having a weird dream, but they usually don't remember the details. i, however, always remember my dreams - and they are very vivid. this is sometimes good and sometimes very, very bad. last week, for example, i had the most terrible dream ever. i haven't even told anyone what it is, because it was so horribly awful that i don't even want to repeat it. and that's pretty bad, because i've had some gruesome dreams before (think horror movie gore...).

anywho, my point in sharing this is to tell you about the dream i had last night. it was the most hilarious dream ever! well, when i woke up and actually thought about it, it wasn't really that funny. the thing is, i woke up laughing! it was so weird! i've woken up crying, i've woken up scared, i've woken up happy...but i've never woken up laughing! and i mean, really laughing - out loud. and i have to say, it's a great way to start the day.

so what did i dream about? well, i was standing in a lunch line. behind me were five guys in a group, the first of them being mr. olympics himself, michael phelps. why michael phelps was in my dream is beyond me...i think he's kind of a tool. and his appearance on "saturday night live" didn't help, even though the "michael phelps diet" skit was pretty funny. but i digress... i was standing in the lunch line and each menu item came on it's own little plate. so i grab like seven or eight little plates, but then i realize i forgot to get a tray. so i'm trying to move down the lunch line with all these different plates and michael phelps starts laughing at me. so then i start laughing, because i realize how ridiculous i must look. then i look down the line and see that his buddy is standing right in front of the trays, so i ask him to pass one down. he says "sure thing," takes a tray from the stack...and keeps it. michael's like, "dude!" i say, "it's alright, i'll just get the next one." his tray-stealing friend takes another tray and hands it to the friend next to him...who keeps it. i turn to michael and say, "or the fifth one..." and we just start laughing hysterically. and that's when i wake up laughing.

like i said, not really funny, but apparently my sleeping self thought it was the most hysterical thing ever, so i just had to share. now i can only hope it happens again - it was seriously the best way to wake up!

thanks for the laughs, mikey!

chapter chat book club

2008-10-18T11:06:00.003-04:00

hey everyone! i've been a busy girl this week. on tuesday, my book club had its book selection night where we discuss business and select books for the coming year. at the meeting, i volunteered to make a website so we could all stay current on announcements and the calendar. i had way too much fun making the site and spent about three solid days just playing around with different features (curse you, fade!). but i am all finished now and it is pretty adorable, if i do say so myself......and i do. :) check it out!