So Padua is a pretty chill University town. The dissection lab closes at 11:45 on Saturdays, so we miss that, but we are able to make it over to see the observatory from which the astronomers of Padua University observed for a few hundred years. Galileo lived and did observations while living here, but at that time the tower was a dungeon, so he carried out his observations from a house in the town.
We find a pretty chill bar to get some paninni and beer in and then head over to the train station after stopping to grab some salami and cheese and bread for dinner on the train. Somehow we end up walking east instead of north after leaving the super market, so we have to kinda hustle to make it to a train that will get us up to Milan for the night train to Naples.
We make it with 10 minutes to spare and get reservations with about 5 to go.
Eat some dinner on the train, hang out in Milan for an hour while waiting for the night train and then hop on that.
We share our compartment with a few kids from Switzerland and talk to them for a bit, we share our wine and they give us some chocolate. we pass out in our couchettes (think sleeping on some one's couch) and wake up the next morning in Naples.
We take the trains out to Herculano and Pompeii and see the amazingly preserved mosaics in the houses there. we come back check into our hotel and go out an get some pizza. The pizzeria we go to claims to be the originator of pizza in 1838 and they have 2 kinds of pizza, Margarita and marinara, and coke, beer and fanta on the menu. That's it.
They do it well, and its 3 beers and 2 big pizzas for 12€.
We wake up grab our free breakfast and wander around Naples looking for a place to sit and have an espresso or two, as its really nice out. We found a place over by the docks to read and drink coffee and sit in the sun for about an hour and a half.
We walk back to the pizza places from yesterday, and the line is out the door and down the block. We must have been really early for dinner yesterday, at least in Napoli time. so we sit down at a sidewalk cafe for beer and sandwiches and head back to the trainstation for Miriam to grab her train to Rome for her flight home tomorrow and my night train with connection to Munich.
Next stop Germany.
Monday, December 29, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
Bologna
So we get into Bologna, and learning our lesson, we have written down the instruction to get from the train station to our hotel ahead of time. We walk the 4 or 5 minutes and check in. Really nice, like with a balcony and everything! We then head down to the square to see what is open and grab some gelatto and espresso, wander around this huge university which has dominated most of the town since about 1088 according to the guidebook, and find a pub to have a beer in.
Every place carries Scotch ale and the Italian crisp Czech style beers, but less hoppy. Its a weird mix, but I like me a Scotch ale, so I'm quite happy with it. And we run across the requisite anarchist/communist students protesting the closing of a theater. Near as Miriam can tell, the government here will not fund the theater, and will instead buy armored cars (I'm guessing this is a protest against funding for the Italian involvement in Iraq or Afghanistan over arts funding?).
The restaurants are all closed as we are heading back at about 6:10 pm or so. We think this is kind of early and stop into one of the restaurants to find out what is going on.
The close from 3 to 7 and then reopen for dinner.
So we head back to the hotel and rest up and drink some of out 4€ a bottle wine rather than paying 4 euro a pint for bar beer and head back out for dinner at about 8:20 or so.
I like any place where a bottle of water can cost 2€ but a glass of wine is 1€, that makes me happy and lets me know that this place's priorities are in the right order. The Bolognese sauce and lasagna are fricking ridiculous, and the walk back to the hotel is short. With Iron Man playing on the TV I pass out and wake up in the morning in time to get my money's worth of the breakfast buffet before heading off to Padua to see the university dissection theater and observatory.
Every place carries Scotch ale and the Italian crisp Czech style beers, but less hoppy. Its a weird mix, but I like me a Scotch ale, so I'm quite happy with it. And we run across the requisite anarchist/communist students protesting the closing of a theater. Near as Miriam can tell, the government here will not fund the theater, and will instead buy armored cars (I'm guessing this is a protest against funding for the Italian involvement in Iraq or Afghanistan over arts funding?).
The restaurants are all closed as we are heading back at about 6:10 pm or so. We think this is kind of early and stop into one of the restaurants to find out what is going on.
The close from 3 to 7 and then reopen for dinner.
So we head back to the hotel and rest up and drink some of out 4€ a bottle wine rather than paying 4 euro a pint for bar beer and head back out for dinner at about 8:20 or so.
I like any place where a bottle of water can cost 2€ but a glass of wine is 1€, that makes me happy and lets me know that this place's priorities are in the right order. The Bolognese sauce and lasagna are fricking ridiculous, and the walk back to the hotel is short. With Iron Man playing on the TV I pass out and wake up in the morning in time to get my money's worth of the breakfast buffet before heading off to Padua to see the university dissection theater and observatory.
Venice
Following our Christmas feast, I was not really so hungry for breakfast, so we had a smaller but nonetheless I got my money's worth. And still good food.
We take the train from Milan to Venice and sit across from a man holding his little Daschund or some small type of dog. Now I don't know if this is an Italian thing, a European thing, or just a not-in-the-US thing, but I have seen dogs on buses and trains and boats everywhere. The conductors get mad at you putting your feet on the seat more than they do about dogs. Seriously, I counted.
So we get into Venice and wander around for about an hour looking for our hotel, which is apparently how we roll nowadays. We find it off a major square, which means buses and "public gondolas," which are the public buses around Venice, pick up. There is a huge supermarket next dorr, which would be awesome except that it doesn't reopen until December 27...grr.
We head tot he old Jewish Ghetto and grab some Kosher pizza, which incidentally looks like the normal pizza by the slice from NYC, and less like the oblong rectangular pizza that you get in Rome at 2 in the morning.
We get to talking tot eh woman behind the counter and she says that despite the three Kosher restaurants, synagogue, Chabad house, and jewelry stores, there are only 400 or so Jews in Venice nowadays, down from over 4000 pre-WWII. There is a pretty cool square on which sits the Glatt Kosher place (that means like super-Kosher for the gentiles out there) which actually looks quite swanky, but its closed until early January.
We then head over to the tourist area around San Marco's square and get the cheapest "tourist menu" we can find, which is basically a prix fixe for 13.50€ and grab some sardines in onions, which is a Venitian specialty. Also, its quite tasty.
The way back gets pretty cold, not Chicago -27° cold, but windy and rainy and cold for what I've seen of Italy.
Pass out, wake up, hit the Internet bar, and eat some more (free) breakfast before we book our couchettes for Milan to Naples (basically 30€ bunks on a train to sleep on. Then we hop on our train to Bologna.
Oh yeah, waiting for the train I grab some 0.60€ vending machine espresso. Awesome.
We take the train from Milan to Venice and sit across from a man holding his little Daschund or some small type of dog. Now I don't know if this is an Italian thing, a European thing, or just a not-in-the-US thing, but I have seen dogs on buses and trains and boats everywhere. The conductors get mad at you putting your feet on the seat more than they do about dogs. Seriously, I counted.
So we get into Venice and wander around for about an hour looking for our hotel, which is apparently how we roll nowadays. We find it off a major square, which means buses and "public gondolas," which are the public buses around Venice, pick up. There is a huge supermarket next dorr, which would be awesome except that it doesn't reopen until December 27...grr.
We head tot he old Jewish Ghetto and grab some Kosher pizza, which incidentally looks like the normal pizza by the slice from NYC, and less like the oblong rectangular pizza that you get in Rome at 2 in the morning.
We get to talking tot eh woman behind the counter and she says that despite the three Kosher restaurants, synagogue, Chabad house, and jewelry stores, there are only 400 or so Jews in Venice nowadays, down from over 4000 pre-WWII. There is a pretty cool square on which sits the Glatt Kosher place (that means like super-Kosher for the gentiles out there) which actually looks quite swanky, but its closed until early January.
We then head over to the tourist area around San Marco's square and get the cheapest "tourist menu" we can find, which is basically a prix fixe for 13.50€ and grab some sardines in onions, which is a Venitian specialty. Also, its quite tasty.
The way back gets pretty cold, not Chicago -27° cold, but windy and rainy and cold for what I've seen of Italy.
Pass out, wake up, hit the Internet bar, and eat some more (free) breakfast before we book our couchettes for Milan to Naples (basically 30€ bunks on a train to sleep on. Then we hop on our train to Bologna.
Oh yeah, waiting for the train I grab some 0.60€ vending machine espresso. Awesome.
Friday, December 26, 2008
Milan
Christmas Eve in Milan is pretty cool. Our place was fricking HUGE! Thank you Christine for the tip. A business hotel was giving 2 upgrades for the hotel, so our normal room became a pretty cool "Executive Suite" for like 50€ a night or something. With a huge breakfast spread.
I don't remember if I have mentioned this, but a free breakfast is pretty killer if you are trying to stay on budget and don't want to stop for a big lunch, or anything at all for that matter.
As it was about 10:30pm when we got in, and this ain't Kroger, nothing was open, so we went to bed a little hungry but killed off some wine from the train. So when breakfast rolled around, I went pretty nuts:
4 eggs, scrambled
1 Prosciutto and mustard on toast
1 turkey, swiss and mayo on toast
2 "wurst" (although I'd call them smokey links)
1 Chocolate croissant
1 glass orange juice
1 glass carrot juice
2 cups coffee
and 2 crackers with Nutella on them
For free. And I dig it.
After breakfast we went to the museum of La Scalla (the world famous opera house) and were able to peek from one of the opera boxes into the actual theater. The view was pretty spectacular.
From there we went to the church that housed the fresco for the Last Supper, and I managed to sneak a photo of it.
From there its off to stop for a beer and a coffee before seeing the Fort in Milan that is a Rick Steve's must see. It is both free and quite immense. We decide to skip the 10€ admission to see the armor collection and Egyptian antiquities (which apparently make sense to have in a fort in Milan?).
We find a kitchen supply store for a bottle opener, a bakery for a blackberry torte, and lemon torte and some bread, and a market for brie, turkey in a mushroom sauce, the second-best salami in Milan (they would only sell the best by the half-kilo!), wine, beer, Fanta, and salmon. This is the Christmas feast which we eat while watching Live Free or Die Hard followed by Mr Marorum's Wonder Emporium.
Hope your Christmas was just as fun.
I don't remember if I have mentioned this, but a free breakfast is pretty killer if you are trying to stay on budget and don't want to stop for a big lunch, or anything at all for that matter.
As it was about 10:30pm when we got in, and this ain't Kroger, nothing was open, so we went to bed a little hungry but killed off some wine from the train. So when breakfast rolled around, I went pretty nuts:
4 eggs, scrambled
1 Prosciutto and mustard on toast
1 turkey, swiss and mayo on toast
2 "wurst" (although I'd call them smokey links)
1 Chocolate croissant
1 glass orange juice
1 glass carrot juice
2 cups coffee
and 2 crackers with Nutella on them
For free. And I dig it.
After breakfast we went to the museum of La Scalla (the world famous opera house) and were able to peek from one of the opera boxes into the actual theater. The view was pretty spectacular.
From there we went to the church that housed the fresco for the Last Supper, and I managed to sneak a photo of it.
From there its off to stop for a beer and a coffee before seeing the Fort in Milan that is a Rick Steve's must see. It is both free and quite immense. We decide to skip the 10€ admission to see the armor collection and Egyptian antiquities (which apparently make sense to have in a fort in Milan?).
We find a kitchen supply store for a bottle opener, a bakery for a blackberry torte, and lemon torte and some bread, and a market for brie, turkey in a mushroom sauce, the second-best salami in Milan (they would only sell the best by the half-kilo!), wine, beer, Fanta, and salmon. This is the Christmas feast which we eat while watching Live Free or Die Hard followed by Mr Marorum's Wonder Emporium.
Hope your Christmas was just as fun.
Florence
So this swanky guesthouse that Miriam snagged for Florence has a crazy nice setup. Right off the end of the old bridge and like a block from the Pitti Palace and about 100 meters from the Uffizi. Breakfast is leftovers from our supermarket trip the night before (so Fanta and bread) then its off to the palace gardens, the porcelain museum and the costume museum (Italian fashion from the 1700s to now). A lunch in one of the bars at the edge of the bridge and then off to see Michelangelo's David at the Galleria.
now "bars" here are more like coffee shop/deli/corner bars, as they serve sandwiches, coffee, drink, and often a few pastas, and most people just grab something quick while leaning on the bar, then wash it down with an espresso.
David really is an impressive piece of art, from its immense size, to the details of the veins standing out on the sides of his neck and arms.
The other pretty cool thing I'm finding is that Italians are pretty big on the no extra light thing. I have run into hotel rooms that require you to keep your key in a slot by the door to keep the lights on, and the hallways have these switches with timers that stay on for a few minutes once you hit them. They are positioned by every entrance to the stairwell or hallway, and you hit them on when walking through, and it turns off soon after. Cool.
On another note, it turns out that my sink washing skills are currently at about a C- level. Clean, but not really all that dry. Nothing like walking around in moderately wet socks to make you appreciate doing a better job with laundry.
Our train to Milan was delayed by what the ticket agent called a "harthkwak."
"A what?"
"Do you know terramoto in English?"
"No." She gets it spelled out.
"Earthquake."
It does not seem to have been terribly major, but it was enough to slow transit down by a few hours.
now "bars" here are more like coffee shop/deli/corner bars, as they serve sandwiches, coffee, drink, and often a few pastas, and most people just grab something quick while leaning on the bar, then wash it down with an espresso.
David really is an impressive piece of art, from its immense size, to the details of the veins standing out on the sides of his neck and arms.
The other pretty cool thing I'm finding is that Italians are pretty big on the no extra light thing. I have run into hotel rooms that require you to keep your key in a slot by the door to keep the lights on, and the hallways have these switches with timers that stay on for a few minutes once you hit them. They are positioned by every entrance to the stairwell or hallway, and you hit them on when walking through, and it turns off soon after. Cool.
On another note, it turns out that my sink washing skills are currently at about a C- level. Clean, but not really all that dry. Nothing like walking around in moderately wet socks to make you appreciate doing a better job with laundry.
Our train to Milan was delayed by what the ticket agent called a "harthkwak."
"A what?"
"Do you know terramoto in English?"
"No." She gets it spelled out.
"Earthquake."
It does not seem to have been terribly major, but it was enough to slow transit down by a few hours.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Pisa and Florence
After a good night in Sienna and a fantastic free breakfast, we catch a few trains, running on time, and arrive about 15.00 in Pisa. After according to Lonely Planet "a brisk 1.5 km walk through the lovely city center you Will find the leaning tower, which is why you're here in the first place." They were right on both counts.We do the walk and get to the town. Apparently there are no tourists, so we are able to climb the tower right away or after just a 10 minute wait. 300 some odd steps later and we're on top of a relatively famous flawed structure that is really quite pretty. I look around and I think of 2 things.
First, I am exactly able to fit in the stairs across my shoulders, so I think that the folks must have been smaller or thinner than I back in the day (probably both).Second, each of the steps is marble, which means that someone carried up the stuff to the place int eh tower in which it was placed.
A walk back, a panini and a beer and we are on the train to Florence.
After walking around for about 30 minutes to find the hotel after a long bus ride that resulted from hopping off at the wrong spot, we finally found our incredibly swanky hotel, grab a dinner from a supermarket next door and attempt to get our clothes washing in the sink.
Tomorrow Florence and the results of my sink washing...
First, I am exactly able to fit in the stairs across my shoulders, so I think that the folks must have been smaller or thinner than I back in the day (probably both).Second, each of the steps is marble, which means that someone carried up the stuff to the place int eh tower in which it was placed.
A walk back, a panini and a beer and we are on the train to Florence.
After walking around for about 30 minutes to find the hotel after a long bus ride that resulted from hopping off at the wrong spot, we finally found our incredibly swanky hotel, grab a dinner from a supermarket next door and attempt to get our clothes washing in the sink.
Tomorrow Florence and the results of my sink washing...
Sienna
Miriam is right, sometimes a little Fareed Zakaria goes a long way. After the kiss-my-ass ride from Railitalia yesterday, getting into the hotel, checking in, and turning on a station that carried CNN just in time to catch every one's favorite Newsweek foreign desk editor can be rather soothing. Sienna is quite a cool place. There is an absolutely lovely medieval central square, a nice duomo, which Miriam says essentially means cathedral, and many a winding turning street.We got some beer and gelato (guess who had which) after getting out of the museum, crypt, and dome, We got to climb to the top of the tower attached to the cathedral and looked out over the whole town. From up there it is really a picture of like every medieval town or every Tuscan town I've seen in a movie.Following the beer and sweets we wander through the old city of Sienna for about 2 hours, which I think I found funner than Miriam did. We found a pizzeria with a pretty decently priced dinner place upstairs. Eating chopped boar bits stuffed into an unidentified stomach thing can be quite exhilarating. Our hotel is quite nice and has a free breakfast buffet, which I intend to fully take advantage of tomorrow. then of to Florence and Pisa!
Monday, December 22, 2008
Rome (Parte Due)
The Jewish Ghetto was actually quite a buit more Jewish than I thought it would be. The food was good and apparently Jewish...but as it was open on Friday night, had a nice spread of shellfish, and had a proscutto appetizer, I question the authenticity of the Kosherness. There qwere however a few places within a block that had "Kosher" signs in the window. There was also a "Kosher Bar" whatever that may be...
I'not going to lie to you, sheep's brain is a whole bunch tastier than it shoudl have any right to be. I have seen it on the menu at at least 3 restaurants, and as Matt has explained that Roman food is mostly about interesting cuts (I think he may have gone with guts), I feel as I had no choice to eat it. It was combined with lightly fried artichokes and mushrooms and green beans.
Now comes the fun part.
After leaving Matt's with a hug, a coffee, and a panini, we head over to the catacombs. Our guide is this fricking awesome Aussie priest who is full of funny sayings, lots of info and some good advice regarding (a) not seeing the other catacombs, (b) not eating at the restaurants on the edge due to price, and (c) to check out the cool pagan mauseleum about a kilometer away.
It turns out that there are no lockers at the catacombs or the metro stop that we took to get over there. So it is now a 5 km hike with bags, but hey, I packed the stuff, so it's on me.So we finish up, grab an overpriced early dinner at the train station from basically an Itialian Panera bread.
We hop on the train bound for Sienna, pass out, and wake up...in Rome.
Apparently the Austrian and Itialian companies who are running this train have overbooked it and so we sit in the station while they sort it out.
for a while
like for 2 fricking hours
Unfortunately that means that we have missed any possible connection to Sienna from florence and so we frantically call our gracious host of the previous few nights, Matt, and see where he is.
Matt is out in the burbs at a dinner, but we are able to get a hold of his roommate, who will wait to let us in her apartment. SO more booze, a freindly Itialian roommate of my college friend and some good pizza, and I am finally unwound.
Mental note: best way to unwind is to have a pizza with salmon arugula and caviar on it. I'm sure that this will totally catch on in the US, and its all I'm eating from now on.
I'not going to lie to you, sheep's brain is a whole bunch tastier than it shoudl have any right to be. I have seen it on the menu at at least 3 restaurants, and as Matt has explained that Roman food is mostly about interesting cuts (I think he may have gone with guts), I feel as I had no choice to eat it. It was combined with lightly fried artichokes and mushrooms and green beans.
Now comes the fun part.
After leaving Matt's with a hug, a coffee, and a panini, we head over to the catacombs. Our guide is this fricking awesome Aussie priest who is full of funny sayings, lots of info and some good advice regarding (a) not seeing the other catacombs, (b) not eating at the restaurants on the edge due to price, and (c) to check out the cool pagan mauseleum about a kilometer away.
It turns out that there are no lockers at the catacombs or the metro stop that we took to get over there. So it is now a 5 km hike with bags, but hey, I packed the stuff, so it's on me.So we finish up, grab an overpriced early dinner at the train station from basically an Itialian Panera bread.
We hop on the train bound for Sienna, pass out, and wake up...in Rome.
Apparently the Austrian and Itialian companies who are running this train have overbooked it and so we sit in the station while they sort it out.
for a while
like for 2 fricking hours
Unfortunately that means that we have missed any possible connection to Sienna from florence and so we frantically call our gracious host of the previous few nights, Matt, and see where he is.
Matt is out in the burbs at a dinner, but we are able to get a hold of his roommate, who will wait to let us in her apartment. SO more booze, a freindly Itialian roommate of my college friend and some good pizza, and I am finally unwound.
Mental note: best way to unwind is to have a pizza with salmon arugula and caviar on it. I'm sure that this will totally catch on in the US, and its all I'm eating from now on.
Vatican City
The truly amazing thing about this place is the size of things. St. Peters is indescribably large. Now I have never been to Mecca and seen the huge mosque in all the pictures from there, but I have gone to a football game or two at Michigan and we have a pretty big stadium there. However, it just does not feel so incredibly large as the basillica.
All the docents here are incredibly freindly and a few ask questions about English idoms such as "You have done what?"
"I said 'change my mind' "
"Yes! This is to make a different idea?" etc.
And the Sistene Chapel really is cool, the cielings throughout the Vatican are a bit fancier than any I have at home, but this really blows them away. Truly, a wonderful sight.
A final note, When Robin Williams's character asks Will Hunting what the Sistene Chapel smells like, the answer is pepermint and swiss cheese. Kidding... or am I
All the docents here are incredibly freindly and a few ask questions about English idoms such as "You have done what?"
"I said 'change my mind' "
"Yes! This is to make a different idea?" etc.
And the Sistene Chapel really is cool, the cielings throughout the Vatican are a bit fancier than any I have at home, but this really blows them away. Truly, a wonderful sight.
A final note, When Robin Williams's character asks Will Hunting what the Sistene Chapel smells like, the answer is pepermint and swiss cheese. Kidding... or am I
Friday, December 19, 2008
Itenerary
Here is a pretty baseline itenerary (subject to change due to weather, missed trians, or cool places I feel like spending more time in...)
Arrive Rome, Italy 12/17-12/29
[[Travel with Miriam and Matt]]
Italy to Munich (8 hrs)
[[Meet Dar and Beanz]]
Frankfurt to Munich --- 3 days
Arrive 12/29 and leave 1/2
Munich to Vienna (5 hour trip) --- 1 day
Arrive 1/2 and leave 1/3
Vienna to Prague (4 hour trip)
Arrive 1/3 and leave 1/7
Prague to Berlin (5 hour trip)
Arrive 1/7 and leave 1/9
Berlin to Amsterdam (7 hour trip)
Arrive 1/9 and leave 1/14
Amsterdam to koln (2.5 hour trip)
Arrive 1/14 and leave 1/7
Koln to frankfort (2 hour trip)
Arrive 1/17 and fly out 1/19
[[Beanz and Dar leave]]
Travel Frankfurt to Riga (flight 2 hrs)
Jan 19 to Jan 22
Travel to Stockholm (boat 12 hr or flight 2 hrs)
Jan 22 to Jan 25
Travel to oslo 6 hrs
Jan 25 to Jan 28
Travel to bergen (8 hrs)
Jan 29
Travel to oslo/Copenhagen (8/ 8 hrs)
Jan 30/31 to Feb 2
Travel to Brussels (14 hrs)
Feb 3 to Feb 5
Travel to Brouge (1 hrs)
Feb 5 to Feb 6
Travel to Strasbourg
(6 hrs)Feb 6 to Feb 7
Travel to Paris (2.5 hrs)
Feb 7 to Feb 11
Travel to London (2.5 hrs)
UK travel Feb 11 to Feb 18
Fly home to US
Arrive Rome, Italy 12/17-12/29
[[Travel with Miriam and Matt]]
Italy to Munich (8 hrs)
[[Meet Dar and Beanz]]
Frankfurt to Munich --- 3 days
Arrive 12/29 and leave 1/2
Munich to Vienna (5 hour trip) --- 1 day
Arrive 1/2 and leave 1/3
Vienna to Prague (4 hour trip)
Arrive 1/3 and leave 1/7
Prague to Berlin (5 hour trip)
Arrive 1/7 and leave 1/9
Berlin to Amsterdam (7 hour trip)
Arrive 1/9 and leave 1/14
Amsterdam to koln (2.5 hour trip)
Arrive 1/14 and leave 1/7
Koln to frankfort (2 hour trip)
Arrive 1/17 and fly out 1/19
[[Beanz and Dar leave]]
Travel Frankfurt to Riga (flight 2 hrs)
Jan 19 to Jan 22
Travel to Stockholm (boat 12 hr or flight 2 hrs)
Jan 22 to Jan 25
Travel to oslo 6 hrs
Jan 25 to Jan 28
Travel to bergen (8 hrs)
Jan 29
Travel to oslo/Copenhagen (8/ 8 hrs)
Jan 30/31 to Feb 2
Travel to Brussels (14 hrs)
Feb 3 to Feb 5
Travel to Brouge (1 hrs)
Feb 5 to Feb 6
Travel to Strasbourg
(6 hrs)Feb 6 to Feb 7
Travel to Paris (2.5 hrs)
Feb 7 to Feb 11
Travel to London (2.5 hrs)
UK travel Feb 11 to Feb 18
Fly home to US
Rome
Currently in my full second day here in Rome.
Yesterday we saw the Coliseum. It really is impressive how much they made it look like the Big House at UofM, wait or is it the other way around... but the Coliseum really is quite impressive and the areas surrounding it are quite beautiful.
The food and drink here really are something else.Thus far I have eaten the deep fried rice balls with cheese and tomato, bruschetta, pizza at least twice, paninni, about 42 espressos, and whatever the cheap house red wine is, it is really fricking good. And it's about 4 euros per half litre.
There is also an impressive amount of scootering going on here, with whole swaths of parking on side streets being put aside for scooter parking. I have passed more scooter repair shops than Internet cafes.
Tonight we check out Roman Jewish food. Exciting? Yeah sure, why not. It should be interesting and I can do the full 5 course Italian dinner on a different day. Plus, as we are visiting the Vatican, the Jewish food should provide a nice ecumenical spin on the day's religious activities.
Yesterday we saw the Coliseum. It really is impressive how much they made it look like the Big House at UofM, wait or is it the other way around... but the Coliseum really is quite impressive and the areas surrounding it are quite beautiful.
The food and drink here really are something else.Thus far I have eaten the deep fried rice balls with cheese and tomato, bruschetta, pizza at least twice, paninni, about 42 espressos, and whatever the cheap house red wine is, it is really fricking good. And it's about 4 euros per half litre.
There is also an impressive amount of scootering going on here, with whole swaths of parking on side streets being put aside for scooter parking. I have passed more scooter repair shops than Internet cafes.
Tonight we check out Roman Jewish food. Exciting? Yeah sure, why not. It should be interesting and I can do the full 5 course Italian dinner on a different day. Plus, as we are visiting the Vatican, the Jewish food should provide a nice ecumenical spin on the day's religious activities.
Amsterdam
So I'll need to figure out how to post pictures from internet cafes (the last few have upload limits). But getting here was pretty fun and Europe thus far has been cool.
our plane got delayed by the like 6 inches of snow falling on Chicago on December 12 so it took us a few hours to get to the airport. However, it took the planes about 3 extra hours to take off from the airport, so we got the full effect of waiting at the airport for the full 3-4 hours that is expected for international flight.
Although the KLM flight was just as cramped as Northwest, the free booze and far superior inflight snacks (cous cous with a vinegarette and a whole wheat roll and chive spread ayone?) made the fight pretty doable.
So Miriam and I landed in Amsterdam and went over to the train station to grab out tickets to Amsterdam Central Station. I got my Eurorail pass stamped and after hopping the th comfortable and on-time train, we took a tram to the Ann Frank House.
At this point it is worth discussing the differences in our travel styles. Miriam prefers to know where she is going and likes to ask people who are actually there to help you, buy maps, look things up ahead of time, etc. I am a bigger fan of wandering around and finding busses attempting to ask them how to get where I am trying to get, and not spending money on maps. I think a prudent approach would veer more in her direction,. but I like the stories that come from my method :) In this case it was a combination of asking at a tourist desk (who gave us the wrong tram anyway) and then finding a helpful driver who steered us in the correct direction.
After hopping off the tram, we stopped at a guy selling herring. are available for like 1.50 euro and are quite good (another good recommendation from Papa Robinovitz).
The Anne Frank House was quite a moving experience, as you can imagine. There was a quote on the wall of the house to the effect of that any event of genocide or ethnic cleansing is horrible and can often cause a visceral reaction to us, Ann Frank in this case put a face and a name on this one and makes it more personable and relatable. Needless to say, after stepping out of that place, I was in need of a beer.
There was a friendly rugby pub happy to ablige this so we sat down, had a pint, and made our way back to the train station, to the airport, and then off to Rome.
our plane got delayed by the like 6 inches of snow falling on Chicago on December 12 so it took us a few hours to get to the airport. However, it took the planes about 3 extra hours to take off from the airport, so we got the full effect of waiting at the airport for the full 3-4 hours that is expected for international flight.
Although the KLM flight was just as cramped as Northwest, the free booze and far superior inflight snacks (cous cous with a vinegarette and a whole wheat roll and chive spread ayone?) made the fight pretty doable.
So Miriam and I landed in Amsterdam and went over to the train station to grab out tickets to Amsterdam Central Station. I got my Eurorail pass stamped and after hopping the th comfortable and on-time train, we took a tram to the Ann Frank House.
At this point it is worth discussing the differences in our travel styles. Miriam prefers to know where she is going and likes to ask people who are actually there to help you, buy maps, look things up ahead of time, etc. I am a bigger fan of wandering around and finding busses attempting to ask them how to get where I am trying to get, and not spending money on maps. I think a prudent approach would veer more in her direction,. but I like the stories that come from my method :) In this case it was a combination of asking at a tourist desk (who gave us the wrong tram anyway) and then finding a helpful driver who steered us in the correct direction.
After hopping off the tram, we stopped at a guy selling herring. are available for like 1.50 euro and are quite good (another good recommendation from Papa Robinovitz).
The Anne Frank House was quite a moving experience, as you can imagine. There was a quote on the wall of the house to the effect of that any event of genocide or ethnic cleansing is horrible and can often cause a visceral reaction to us, Ann Frank in this case put a face and a name on this one and makes it more personable and relatable. Needless to say, after stepping out of that place, I was in need of a beer.
There was a friendly rugby pub happy to ablige this so we sat down, had a pint, and made our way back to the train station, to the airport, and then off to Rome.
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Departure
Taking off in about 5 hours from Chicago. Everthign is packed up into a backpack, and hopefully that should be enough crap to keep me warm and smelling good enough to be around.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
The Beginning (Chelsea, MI)
So, I'm going to be headed over to that Europe thing I've heard so much about. This is currently my planning period as I hang out in lovely Chelsea, Michigan, eating my parents' food and sleeping on a futon that I don't own...wait why does that sound familiar? (I have been sleeping on a friend's couch for the past few months.) If anyone knows some cool people I should grab a beer with or cool places or things to see in Europe, let me know.
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