Believe me when I say... it's hot! DAMN hot!
I know we get hotter in Oz, but we usually stay in the air-conned comfort of our houses or offices or skip work and head to the beach... not walk around in the sweltering heat looking at bits of 2500 year old stone...
yay...
Saturday, July 29, 2006
JULY 22nd
bless me father for i have sinned...
into Venezia (Venice) by lunch time. we'd booked online a hostel called Casa Domus or something like that. found it with relative ease. we were expecting to be in a room with 3 beds and judging from the fact that it was fairly booked out online, we thought we'd have to share with someone. no biggy.
when we checked in with the guy at the reception who looked like a priest and couldn't speak a lick of english, he handed us keys for two different rooms. were a bit annoyed with this cos it looked like we were going to have to be split up and share with people. tried to ask him to put us in the same room, but he said come back at 430pm and speak with the receptionist then becoz she speak english.headed to our rooms and we were happy to find that we both had single rooms. of course we would have prefered to have been in the same room, but this way we didn't have to share, so all was peachy!
i'm sure the hostel used to be a nunnery! just had that feeling. very sparse but cheap and clean. but hot! Venice is pretty humid - that's what happens when you build a city on top of the water i guess! and there was bugger all airflow in my room and no fan, so i was sweating almost as much as when i was walking from Monterosso!
SIDENOTE:when we did the Cinque Terre walk, i sweat (past tense of sweat? swot? ;-) ) so much that my t-shirt had a white ring of salt around the back from where my backpack had been sitting against my back. there was a pamphlet in my backpack that had been against the part touching my back that was very damp by the end of the walk. sorry Dan, your pack now comes in a new flavour... Salty evBSc Sweat pour homme...
enough babble...
once we'd escaped from our personal saunas, we trekked around Venice in the vague direction of St Mark's Basilica.
Venice is definitely a special city. yes it had hordes of tourists, but what part of europe doesn't at this time of the year? what i mean is that we've been to a few major cities in europe now and besides language and architectural differences, you could be in the same place time and time again.
but not Venice...
there are canals, not streets...
there are boats and gondolas, not cars...
the place is magical...
we wound our way thru the streets and came upon the Grand Canal. there aren't many bridges which cross the Grand Canal and so the Venezians use trachetto - gondolas specifically for making the crossing. they cost 50cents per crossing. twas quick but fun. jee wanted to get a photo of the gondoleer cos he was handsome, back she only got a photo of his back and butt. :-)
finding St Mark's Basilica from there was pretty easy. just follow the tourists!they say in the Lonely Planet that the pigeons in St Mark's Plaza are only outnumbered by the tourists... they were right! hordes of both of them!the line to get into the Basilica was pretty long and in the direct sunshine, so we grabbed some gelati and a drink before lining up.
took a photo of me between the two big columns that you often see on tv shows about Venice. one has St Mark's winged lion on top, the other has St Theodore, the ex-patron saint of Venice. the great thing about the photo is that just as jee was taking it, a pigeon flew straight towards jee's direction just to the right of me. i think he wanted to be in the photo too!
the story of St Mark's Basilica is something i'll have look into a bit more. the basic run down is the Venezians nicked off with his body from Egypt and smuggled it back to Venice in a barrel of pork. then they built the Basilica to entomb him in somewhere special.there's a great painting on the outside of the Basilica that you can check out as you're waiting to get in. it shows the basics of the tale and i just loved the centre picture. shows a bunch of guys around what i guess is the open barrel of pork that they put his body in. and it looks like it stank! there's one covering his nose and i'm sure another is dry retching!
to get inside was just like the Duomo in Milan. you can't be baring shoulders or knees. tough call in the middle of summer, but thankfully the Venezians have their heads screwed on better than the Milanese. as you enter, if you aren't appropriately attired, they give you large square of orange cloth that can be draped around your shoulders or wrapped around you legs! jee's dress bared both shoulders and knees, but she just wrapped my bandana and her shoulders and they didn't worry bout her legs."
the inside of the Basilica is pretty damn amazing. the artwork and mosaics are great. entrance is free, but if you wanna see some of the displays, you've gotta say a coupla euros. one display was of all the stuff the Basilica had looted from other places! most 800 to 1000 years old. things like cups and urns and various other religious paraphernalia. the other display was of St Mark's tomb and this absolutely amazing altar piece called the Pala d'Oro. it's made from gold and has jewels galore all over it. i overheard a tour guide reeling off how many of each gem were on the piece. i only heard "250 sapphires and 300 emeralds" but there were a lot more diamonds i think. the thing was absolutely covered in gems!
next we caught the vaporhetto (water bus) to the Rialto which is the largest bridge in Venice.headed back to the hostel for a bit before we went out for a coupla drinks at a bar recommended by the Lonely Planet.
Cafe Noir. nice atmosphere and friendly staff. next time you have a Hoegarden, try it with a coupla slices of lemon! ;-)
JULY 23rd
off to Lido - Venice's beach. 8 euro for a single deck chair but in the shade so it was worth it. swam for a bit. pretty crowded and water wasn't very clear but was refreshing after all the heat.
headed to Murano next which is a specific island in Venice famous for its glass making.
the glass work is fantastic. really beautiful pieces and designs. we went into one display shop called Fenace Cam (i think!) that was the oldest in Murano - supposedly since 1030. talked with a nice guy called Marco who took us to the upper floor which has a lot of large single pieces and lots of different designs of glasses in various colours. those Murano glass masters really know what they're doing. it's unbelievable how beautiful some of the glasses were. we were really set on getting one and spent about 15min looking and trying to decide which one. finally chose a black and white tall wine glass and asked how much it was...
five hundred and eighty five euro...
that number again: 585 euro
he could see that we a tad (very) taken aback by this price so he said he could do 515euro for credit card or 450euro for cash.
bargain...
he explained that each piece in the showroom was a handmade original and you get free shipping with 100 percent insurance to your home country and a certificate for the piece.
we declined his generous offer.
585euro is close to 1000 australian dollars i think.
i could buy an Xbox360 and a few games for the same price.
let's compare the two...the Xbox360... a machine of beauty and grace that would provide me with hours upon hours of entertainment.and the glass... a piece of overheated sand of grace and beauty that would sit there looking amazing on the mantelpiece of my non-existant fireplace and gather dust until a next door neighbour's child smacks a cricket ball thru our window and reduces our glass to 585euros worth of black and white shards.i think even jee would prefer the Xbox360... and that's saying something! ;-)
Marco told us that the factory and showroom is only open to the public during the summer months. the rest of the year, they make and export glass pieces en masse.jee and i decided that the next time we come back to Venice we'll be rich and we'll buy a few glasses!
;-)
back into Venice proper by water bus again and bought a couple of masks.
had to... it's Venice!
was going to go for the Eyes Wide Shut style, but went for something very different and original in the end.jee wanted to ride on a gondola and i was up for it too, but for 60euro, how much is a boat ride really worth? not even sure he the dude sings! that was another thing we decided to do next time we come back to europe! ;-)
the night was thankfully cooler than the previous one and was able to sleep a lot easier. was woken up at about 520am by a thunder storm! since we've been in europe, it hasn't rained once and the first time it does BOOM!
JULY 24th
morning was nice and cool in Venice thanks to the rain which had only lasted an hour or so. 2 and a half hours on a first class train to Florence. i sat next to a nun! jee took a photo of us... i'm a happy camper. saw a nun with a rope belt. looked really cool. wanna get one for myself, go ultra retro style!
Florence's tourist info office at the station was closed - bloody helpful...used map from Lonely Planet and directions off net to find the Hotel La Noce. was quick and easy and close to the station.
Dan, where would we be without you?
2star hotel but really nice and clean and comfortable beds. reception dude very friendly and helpful too. good location too, near majority of sights.was hot when we got in but an hour later BOOM! thunder storm comes thru! rained really hard for about an hour but cooled things down very nicely.
walked around to the Duomo. fourth largest cathedral in the world. started in 1294 and took 150yrs to build! view from the top is great and even the 463 steps to get up there weren't too bad. thank god it had rained earlier cos it was hot enough going up!the inside of the main dome is painted with visions of heaven and hell. funky stuff!
signing off
evBSc
bless me father for i have sinned...
into Venezia (Venice) by lunch time. we'd booked online a hostel called Casa Domus or something like that. found it with relative ease. we were expecting to be in a room with 3 beds and judging from the fact that it was fairly booked out online, we thought we'd have to share with someone. no biggy.
when we checked in with the guy at the reception who looked like a priest and couldn't speak a lick of english, he handed us keys for two different rooms. were a bit annoyed with this cos it looked like we were going to have to be split up and share with people. tried to ask him to put us in the same room, but he said come back at 430pm and speak with the receptionist then becoz she speak english.headed to our rooms and we were happy to find that we both had single rooms. of course we would have prefered to have been in the same room, but this way we didn't have to share, so all was peachy!
i'm sure the hostel used to be a nunnery! just had that feeling. very sparse but cheap and clean. but hot! Venice is pretty humid - that's what happens when you build a city on top of the water i guess! and there was bugger all airflow in my room and no fan, so i was sweating almost as much as when i was walking from Monterosso!
SIDENOTE:when we did the Cinque Terre walk, i sweat (past tense of sweat? swot? ;-) ) so much that my t-shirt had a white ring of salt around the back from where my backpack had been sitting against my back. there was a pamphlet in my backpack that had been against the part touching my back that was very damp by the end of the walk. sorry Dan, your pack now comes in a new flavour... Salty evBSc Sweat pour homme...
enough babble...
once we'd escaped from our personal saunas, we trekked around Venice in the vague direction of St Mark's Basilica.
Venice is definitely a special city. yes it had hordes of tourists, but what part of europe doesn't at this time of the year? what i mean is that we've been to a few major cities in europe now and besides language and architectural differences, you could be in the same place time and time again.
but not Venice...
there are canals, not streets...
there are boats and gondolas, not cars...
the place is magical...
we wound our way thru the streets and came upon the Grand Canal. there aren't many bridges which cross the Grand Canal and so the Venezians use trachetto - gondolas specifically for making the crossing. they cost 50cents per crossing. twas quick but fun. jee wanted to get a photo of the gondoleer cos he was handsome, back she only got a photo of his back and butt. :-)
finding St Mark's Basilica from there was pretty easy. just follow the tourists!they say in the Lonely Planet that the pigeons in St Mark's Plaza are only outnumbered by the tourists... they were right! hordes of both of them!the line to get into the Basilica was pretty long and in the direct sunshine, so we grabbed some gelati and a drink before lining up.
took a photo of me between the two big columns that you often see on tv shows about Venice. one has St Mark's winged lion on top, the other has St Theodore, the ex-patron saint of Venice. the great thing about the photo is that just as jee was taking it, a pigeon flew straight towards jee's direction just to the right of me. i think he wanted to be in the photo too!
the story of St Mark's Basilica is something i'll have look into a bit more. the basic run down is the Venezians nicked off with his body from Egypt and smuggled it back to Venice in a barrel of pork. then they built the Basilica to entomb him in somewhere special.there's a great painting on the outside of the Basilica that you can check out as you're waiting to get in. it shows the basics of the tale and i just loved the centre picture. shows a bunch of guys around what i guess is the open barrel of pork that they put his body in. and it looks like it stank! there's one covering his nose and i'm sure another is dry retching!
to get inside was just like the Duomo in Milan. you can't be baring shoulders or knees. tough call in the middle of summer, but thankfully the Venezians have their heads screwed on better than the Milanese. as you enter, if you aren't appropriately attired, they give you large square of orange cloth that can be draped around your shoulders or wrapped around you legs! jee's dress bared both shoulders and knees, but she just wrapped my bandana and her shoulders and they didn't worry bout her legs."
the inside of the Basilica is pretty damn amazing. the artwork and mosaics are great. entrance is free, but if you wanna see some of the displays, you've gotta say a coupla euros. one display was of all the stuff the Basilica had looted from other places! most 800 to 1000 years old. things like cups and urns and various other religious paraphernalia. the other display was of St Mark's tomb and this absolutely amazing altar piece called the Pala d'Oro. it's made from gold and has jewels galore all over it. i overheard a tour guide reeling off how many of each gem were on the piece. i only heard "250 sapphires and 300 emeralds" but there were a lot more diamonds i think. the thing was absolutely covered in gems!
next we caught the vaporhetto (water bus) to the Rialto which is the largest bridge in Venice.headed back to the hostel for a bit before we went out for a coupla drinks at a bar recommended by the Lonely Planet.
Cafe Noir. nice atmosphere and friendly staff. next time you have a Hoegarden, try it with a coupla slices of lemon! ;-)
JULY 23rd
off to Lido - Venice's beach. 8 euro for a single deck chair but in the shade so it was worth it. swam for a bit. pretty crowded and water wasn't very clear but was refreshing after all the heat.
headed to Murano next which is a specific island in Venice famous for its glass making.
the glass work is fantastic. really beautiful pieces and designs. we went into one display shop called Fenace Cam (i think!) that was the oldest in Murano - supposedly since 1030. talked with a nice guy called Marco who took us to the upper floor which has a lot of large single pieces and lots of different designs of glasses in various colours. those Murano glass masters really know what they're doing. it's unbelievable how beautiful some of the glasses were. we were really set on getting one and spent about 15min looking and trying to decide which one. finally chose a black and white tall wine glass and asked how much it was...
five hundred and eighty five euro...
that number again: 585 euro
he could see that we a tad (very) taken aback by this price so he said he could do 515euro for credit card or 450euro for cash.
bargain...
he explained that each piece in the showroom was a handmade original and you get free shipping with 100 percent insurance to your home country and a certificate for the piece.
we declined his generous offer.
585euro is close to 1000 australian dollars i think.
i could buy an Xbox360 and a few games for the same price.
let's compare the two...the Xbox360... a machine of beauty and grace that would provide me with hours upon hours of entertainment.and the glass... a piece of overheated sand of grace and beauty that would sit there looking amazing on the mantelpiece of my non-existant fireplace and gather dust until a next door neighbour's child smacks a cricket ball thru our window and reduces our glass to 585euros worth of black and white shards.i think even jee would prefer the Xbox360... and that's saying something! ;-)
Marco told us that the factory and showroom is only open to the public during the summer months. the rest of the year, they make and export glass pieces en masse.jee and i decided that the next time we come back to Venice we'll be rich and we'll buy a few glasses!
;-)
back into Venice proper by water bus again and bought a couple of masks.
had to... it's Venice!
was going to go for the Eyes Wide Shut style, but went for something very different and original in the end.jee wanted to ride on a gondola and i was up for it too, but for 60euro, how much is a boat ride really worth? not even sure he the dude sings! that was another thing we decided to do next time we come back to europe! ;-)
the night was thankfully cooler than the previous one and was able to sleep a lot easier. was woken up at about 520am by a thunder storm! since we've been in europe, it hasn't rained once and the first time it does BOOM!
JULY 24th
morning was nice and cool in Venice thanks to the rain which had only lasted an hour or so. 2 and a half hours on a first class train to Florence. i sat next to a nun! jee took a photo of us... i'm a happy camper. saw a nun with a rope belt. looked really cool. wanna get one for myself, go ultra retro style!
Florence's tourist info office at the station was closed - bloody helpful...used map from Lonely Planet and directions off net to find the Hotel La Noce. was quick and easy and close to the station.
Dan, where would we be without you?
2star hotel but really nice and clean and comfortable beds. reception dude very friendly and helpful too. good location too, near majority of sights.was hot when we got in but an hour later BOOM! thunder storm comes thru! rained really hard for about an hour but cooled things down very nicely.
walked around to the Duomo. fourth largest cathedral in the world. started in 1294 and took 150yrs to build! view from the top is great and even the 463 steps to get up there weren't too bad. thank god it had rained earlier cos it was hot enough going up!the inside of the main dome is painted with visions of heaven and hell. funky stuff!
signing off
evBSc
JULY 16th
off to Monaco!beautiful coastline. cliffs straight into sea. buildings perched on cliffs. went to Casino Monte Carlo. 10 euro just to get in! black jack started at 4pm so only could play roulette or pokies so opted to just take in the interior. amazing! old paintings and ceiling really detailed.
parked outside casino was a black Aston Martin DB9 (thanks to NFS: Most Wanted currently one of my favourite cars!) a silver Ferrari and also two yellow lambos! saw various beautiful, expensive cars. took plenty of photos! after i'd taken plenty of shots (i wasn't the only tourist doing it either!) of about the 4th car we'd come across, jee asked if we'd come to Monaco to take pics of cars or sight see. i said the original plan was sightseeing, but the plans had changed! :-)
could have taken ride (or driven) (35 or 70 euro) along the Monaco F1 circuit in a Ferrari 355 Spider, but waiting time was 2 hours, so missed out on that unfortunately. :-(
went and checked out the palace. guards were present and standing to attention. there was a semicircle with a radius of about 15m from the palace doors sectioned off by a heavy but low slung chain. one tourist stepped over the chain and a guard stepped out of his box bearing an M-16 (time to update!) with a bayonet attached and blew his whistle a couple of times. tourist quickly stepped back over the chain!lots of old cannons and cannonballs around the palace.
missed seeing Grace Kelly's tomb unfortunately.got our passports stamped with Monaco stamps!weren't that hungry when we got home so we snacked and went for a walk along beach at night. lots of ppl still eating hearty meals at midnight!had some of the best ice cream ever. think shop was called Pinocino. had REAL pistachio and caramel.
JULY 17th
booked ticks for next coupla weeks at Nice station. ate lunch and hit the beach for a few hours. overcast but water was nice.home for dinner. then off to the net cafe for booking accommo for all the train tickets we'd booked in the morn. in Rome we'll be staying in a Korean MINBAK (like a Japanese MINSHUKU and for those of us who speak neither of those languages, it's like a dorm or hostel kinda thing and they provide breakfast and dinner too! but we'll be separated into same sex dorms, so i can drink SOJU with the lads!)
Nice was a holiday from our holiday! relaxing, not too much sight seeing. just chillin.JULY 18thon train to Genoa to head to La Spezia. between these two cities is what's known as the Cinque Terre (the 5 lands or 5 villages) which has been gaining in popularity over the last few years according to the lady who owned the apartment in Nice. it was recommended to us by Dan "BoyWonder" Gammon, bless his soul! (as i'm typing this on the train to Florence, i have a nun to either side of me!) an ozzy i spoke to in montpellier also highly recommended it.
dogs seem very popular in france. can even take them on trains and in department stores. owners don't seem to clean up after them much though. lots of shit on the streets (well in Nice anyway). gotta watch where you step!
got to la spezia and headed to hostel in Biassa. very small town located between La Spezia and Riomaggiore (the first of the Cinque Terre). Biassa was quiet (they don't have an ATM!) but beautiful and very traditional. grabbed food and water, then went for walk up winding road and thru the "backstreets" - little stairways and paths crossing between all the houses. you can get lost so easily! but that's the fun part! lots of the houses have out door pizza ovens too!
church bell near our hostel tolls on the hour twice! however many times on the hour and then again 3 min later! tolls all thru the night too!this was the first time we stayed in a shared room. two bunks. other couple came in bout 11pm. we were already in bed. hostel was very clean and well managed.Ostello Tramonti in Biassa - v. nice!"
off to Monaco!beautiful coastline. cliffs straight into sea. buildings perched on cliffs. went to Casino Monte Carlo. 10 euro just to get in! black jack started at 4pm so only could play roulette or pokies so opted to just take in the interior. amazing! old paintings and ceiling really detailed.
parked outside casino was a black Aston Martin DB9 (thanks to NFS: Most Wanted currently one of my favourite cars!) a silver Ferrari and also two yellow lambos! saw various beautiful, expensive cars. took plenty of photos! after i'd taken plenty of shots (i wasn't the only tourist doing it either!) of about the 4th car we'd come across, jee asked if we'd come to Monaco to take pics of cars or sight see. i said the original plan was sightseeing, but the plans had changed! :-)
could have taken ride (or driven) (35 or 70 euro) along the Monaco F1 circuit in a Ferrari 355 Spider, but waiting time was 2 hours, so missed out on that unfortunately. :-(
went and checked out the palace. guards were present and standing to attention. there was a semicircle with a radius of about 15m from the palace doors sectioned off by a heavy but low slung chain. one tourist stepped over the chain and a guard stepped out of his box bearing an M-16 (time to update!) with a bayonet attached and blew his whistle a couple of times. tourist quickly stepped back over the chain!lots of old cannons and cannonballs around the palace.
missed seeing Grace Kelly's tomb unfortunately.got our passports stamped with Monaco stamps!weren't that hungry when we got home so we snacked and went for a walk along beach at night. lots of ppl still eating hearty meals at midnight!had some of the best ice cream ever. think shop was called Pinocino. had REAL pistachio and caramel.
JULY 17th
booked ticks for next coupla weeks at Nice station. ate lunch and hit the beach for a few hours. overcast but water was nice.home for dinner. then off to the net cafe for booking accommo for all the train tickets we'd booked in the morn. in Rome we'll be staying in a Korean MINBAK (like a Japanese MINSHUKU and for those of us who speak neither of those languages, it's like a dorm or hostel kinda thing and they provide breakfast and dinner too! but we'll be separated into same sex dorms, so i can drink SOJU with the lads!)
Nice was a holiday from our holiday! relaxing, not too much sight seeing. just chillin.JULY 18thon train to Genoa to head to La Spezia. between these two cities is what's known as the Cinque Terre (the 5 lands or 5 villages) which has been gaining in popularity over the last few years according to the lady who owned the apartment in Nice. it was recommended to us by Dan "BoyWonder" Gammon, bless his soul! (as i'm typing this on the train to Florence, i have a nun to either side of me!) an ozzy i spoke to in montpellier also highly recommended it.
dogs seem very popular in france. can even take them on trains and in department stores. owners don't seem to clean up after them much though. lots of shit on the streets (well in Nice anyway). gotta watch where you step!
got to la spezia and headed to hostel in Biassa. very small town located between La Spezia and Riomaggiore (the first of the Cinque Terre). Biassa was quiet (they don't have an ATM!) but beautiful and very traditional. grabbed food and water, then went for walk up winding road and thru the "backstreets" - little stairways and paths crossing between all the houses. you can get lost so easily! but that's the fun part! lots of the houses have out door pizza ovens too!
church bell near our hostel tolls on the hour twice! however many times on the hour and then again 3 min later! tolls all thru the night too!this was the first time we stayed in a shared room. two bunks. other couple came in bout 11pm. we were already in bed. hostel was very clean and well managed.Ostello Tramonti in Biassa - v. nice!"
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
hmm...
it appears that it doesn't like the formatting...
will do more later...
Had toyed with the idea of blogging from my mobile when in suitable 3G areas in europe, but didn't think i'd end up doing it. now that i realise i'm not getting the quality internet cafe time i thought i'd get, i will post brief notes of what we've done and maybe elaborate later when i have time or if anyone asks a specific question.i've been keeping notes of most days of our trip in my mob so far so i could refer to them when blogging. now i'll just email them!JULY 11got into Barcelona on overnight train. looked around for a bit before heading to karen's place. karen is a canadian lass who i used to work with in japan. she left japan to head to spain to teach english there, hooked up with a very nice Spaniard called Manell (i think that's right!) and has stayed ever since! even though i hadn't seen her for about 5 years and have barely kept in touch due to my laziness, she generously accepted to put Jee and i up for a few nights! feel the love! :-)kaz and Manell live just outside Barcelona in a place called Granollers.kaz took us to lunch at a nearby restaurant. good food and a crazy old waiter! i think he was rather taken with jee!crashed at kaz's. did some washing. resurrected ipod which had not been copying the photos from my digital camera like it was supposed to.in the evening, kaz and manell took us to a funky beach with a bar in a hut on the sand. in front of the hut were bamboo mats surrounded by citronella burners on poles. the moon was huge and beautiful. twas the perfect temperature and the sea was really calm.JULY 12thstarted the morning by waiting in Barcelona's Sants station for 2 hours to buy train ticks to montpellier. spanish system to buy tickets seems pretty shitty from what we've experienced. we had to wait a total of 8 hours over 3 different occasions to buy train tickets!after that we had a day of Gaudi madness! i have to admit my ignorance. prior to heading to Barcelona, i'd never heard of Antonio Gaudi. google him for more info. he was a brilliant architect who based his designs on nature. rarely used straight lines in his buildings. everything is smooth and flowing.
went to Park Guell and Gaudi Museum then visited the Sagrada Familia (the sacred family).bloody amazing.original construction began in 1882. it\'s still being built and they don\'t know when it\'s going to be finished! the money to build it has always come from donations and sponsors, not the government! probably would\'ve sent the city council broke if they had been paying for it!kaz was saying that they will have to demolish some of the surrounding apartment buildings to build the full cathedral. and they don\'t know how to complete the main tower (170m) yet! they\'re not even sure if Gaudi himself knew how he was going to do i before he died or if he was still planning it!a highly recommended sight to see.JULY 13thwe tried and failed to book the second part of our journey from montpellier to Nice again. the spanish computers weren\'t able to connect with the french computers for some reason.decided to leave that part to fate!went to Casa Batllo, a building i think Gaudi remodelled for the Batllo family. another amazing example of Gaudi\'s work.16euro50 to get in was a bit steep but hopefully the proceeds go to building the Sagrada Familia and the audio guide was free. good to hear background info thru the audio guide, but can be a bit over-exaggerated at times (eg. "the most original fireplace you\'ll ever see in your lifetime").but Casa Batllo does show you how much Gaudi thought about natural ventilation and lighting etc. real genius.after lunch walked thru old gothic area of Barcelona and la ramblas. there was a great market along la ramblas which had various fruit and veg shops and butchers. they also had some lolly stalls where i bought some lollies in the shape of fried eggs! so sweet... so tasty...had time to kill and we were sightseeing-ed out so did a bit of window shopping.jee really wanted to see a water fountain display at 930pm that she\'d read about. twas very pretty and there were heaps of people there too! bout a 15min display with lighting and music. think i counted a total of 21 tourist buses lining up along the road leading to the fountain!well i\'ll try sending this now and see if it works!",0]
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some of his buildings remind me of buildings i've seen in animated films by Hayao Miyazaki.went to Park Guell and Gaudi Museum then visited the Sagrada Familia (the sacred family).bloody amazing.original construction began in 1882. it's still being built and they don't know when it's going to be finished! the money to build it has always come from donations and sponsors, not the government! probably would've sent the city council broke if they had been paying for it!kaz was saying that they will have to demolish some of the surrounding apartment buildings to build the full cathedral. and they don't know how to complete the main tower (170m) yet! they're not even sure if Gaudi himself knew how he was going to do i before he died or if he was still planning it!a highly recommended sight to see.JULY 13thwe tried and failed to book the second part of our journey from montpellier to Nice again. the spanish computers weren't able to connect with the french computers for some reason.decided to leave that part to fate!went to Casa Batllo, a building i think Gaudi remodelled for the Batllo family. another amazing example of Gaudi's work.16euro50 to get in was a bit steep but hopefully the proceeds go to building the Sagrada Familia and the audio guide was free. good to hear background info thru the audio guide, but can be a bit over-exaggerated at times (eg. "the most original fireplace you'll ever see in your lifetime").but Casa Batllo does show you how much Gaudi thought about natural ventilation and lighting etc. real genius.after lunch walked thru old gothic area of Barcelona and la ramblas. there was a great market along la ramblas which had various fruit and veg shops and butchers. they also had some lolly stalls where i bought some lollies in the shape of fried eggs! so sweet... so tasty...had time to kill and we were sightseeing-ed out so did a bit of window shopping.jee really wanted to see a water fountain display at 930pm that she'd read about. twas very pretty and there were heaps of people there too! bout a 15min display with lighting and music. think i counted a total of 21 tourist buses lining up along the road leading to the fountain!well i'll try sending this now and see if it works!
it appears that it doesn't like the formatting...
will do more later...
Had toyed with the idea of blogging from my mobile when in suitable 3G areas in europe, but didn't think i'd end up doing it. now that i realise i'm not getting the quality internet cafe time i thought i'd get, i will post brief notes of what we've done and maybe elaborate later when i have time or if anyone asks a specific question.i've been keeping notes of most days of our trip in my mob so far so i could refer to them when blogging. now i'll just email them!JULY 11got into Barcelona on overnight train. looked around for a bit before heading to karen's place. karen is a canadian lass who i used to work with in japan. she left japan to head to spain to teach english there, hooked up with a very nice Spaniard called Manell (i think that's right!) and has stayed ever since! even though i hadn't seen her for about 5 years and have barely kept in touch due to my laziness, she generously accepted to put Jee and i up for a few nights! feel the love! :-)kaz and Manell live just outside Barcelona in a place called Granollers.kaz took us to lunch at a nearby restaurant. good food and a crazy old waiter! i think he was rather taken with jee!crashed at kaz's. did some washing. resurrected ipod which had not been copying the photos from my digital camera like it was supposed to.in the evening, kaz and manell took us to a funky beach with a bar in a hut on the sand. in front of the hut were bamboo mats surrounded by citronella burners on poles. the moon was huge and beautiful. twas the perfect temperature and the sea was really calm.JULY 12thstarted the morning by waiting in Barcelona's Sants station for 2 hours to buy train ticks to montpellier. spanish system to buy tickets seems pretty shitty from what we've experienced. we had to wait a total of 8 hours over 3 different occasions to buy train tickets!after that we had a day of Gaudi madness! i have to admit my ignorance. prior to heading to Barcelona, i'd never heard of Antonio Gaudi. google him for more info. he was a brilliant architect who based his designs on nature. rarely used straight lines in his buildings. everything is smooth and flowing.
went to Park Guell and Gaudi Museum then visited the Sagrada Familia (the sacred family).bloody amazing.original construction began in 1882. it\'s still being built and they don\'t know when it\'s going to be finished! the money to build it has always come from donations and sponsors, not the government! probably would\'ve sent the city council broke if they had been paying for it!kaz was saying that they will have to demolish some of the surrounding apartment buildings to build the full cathedral. and they don\'t know how to complete the main tower (170m) yet! they\'re not even sure if Gaudi himself knew how he was going to do i before he died or if he was still planning it!a highly recommended sight to see.JULY 13thwe tried and failed to book the second part of our journey from montpellier to Nice again. the spanish computers weren\'t able to connect with the french computers for some reason.decided to leave that part to fate!went to Casa Batllo, a building i think Gaudi remodelled for the Batllo family. another amazing example of Gaudi\'s work.16euro50 to get in was a bit steep but hopefully the proceeds go to building the Sagrada Familia and the audio guide was free. good to hear background info thru the audio guide, but can be a bit over-exaggerated at times (eg. "the most original fireplace you\'ll ever see in your lifetime").but Casa Batllo does show you how much Gaudi thought about natural ventilation and lighting etc. real genius.after lunch walked thru old gothic area of Barcelona and la ramblas. there was a great market along la ramblas which had various fruit and veg shops and butchers. they also had some lolly stalls where i bought some lollies in the shape of fried eggs! so sweet... so tasty...had time to kill and we were sightseeing-ed out so did a bit of window shopping.jee really wanted to see a water fountain display at 930pm that she\'d read about. twas very pretty and there were heaps of people there too! bout a 15min display with lighting and music. think i counted a total of 21 tourist buses lining up along the road leading to the fountain!well i\'ll try sending this now and see if it works!",0]
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some of his buildings remind me of buildings i've seen in animated films by Hayao Miyazaki.went to Park Guell and Gaudi Museum then visited the Sagrada Familia (the sacred family).bloody amazing.original construction began in 1882. it's still being built and they don't know when it's going to be finished! the money to build it has always come from donations and sponsors, not the government! probably would've sent the city council broke if they had been paying for it!kaz was saying that they will have to demolish some of the surrounding apartment buildings to build the full cathedral. and they don't know how to complete the main tower (170m) yet! they're not even sure if Gaudi himself knew how he was going to do i before he died or if he was still planning it!a highly recommended sight to see.JULY 13thwe tried and failed to book the second part of our journey from montpellier to Nice again. the spanish computers weren't able to connect with the french computers for some reason.decided to leave that part to fate!went to Casa Batllo, a building i think Gaudi remodelled for the Batllo family. another amazing example of Gaudi's work.16euro50 to get in was a bit steep but hopefully the proceeds go to building the Sagrada Familia and the audio guide was free. good to hear background info thru the audio guide, but can be a bit over-exaggerated at times (eg. "the most original fireplace you'll ever see in your lifetime").but Casa Batllo does show you how much Gaudi thought about natural ventilation and lighting etc. real genius.after lunch walked thru old gothic area of Barcelona and la ramblas. there was a great market along la ramblas which had various fruit and veg shops and butchers. they also had some lolly stalls where i bought some lollies in the shape of fried eggs! so sweet... so tasty...had time to kill and we were sightseeing-ed out so did a bit of window shopping.jee really wanted to see a water fountain display at 930pm that she'd read about. twas very pretty and there were heaps of people there too! bout a 15min display with lighting and music. think i counted a total of 21 tourist buses lining up along the road leading to the fountain!well i'll try sending this now and see if it works!
Hi everybody!!
trying to blog from my mobile phone...
sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...
not a perfect system i guess...
luckily i've been sending them to my gmail account too, so i'll just copy and paste them straight into the next couple of blog entries...
all lovers of spidey go here... and cream thyselves...
thanks to dr dat for the heads up on that one...
wish i could post some photos up with the comments... will probably do that once we return... or just open a flickr.com account and dump em all on there!!!
all my mobile blogs WERE in date order, but now are outta whack cos of the probs... pls forgive...
loving europe and missing you!!
evBSc and G
Monday, July 24, 2006
JULY 19th
3 euro hostel breakfast. jam filled croissant. strong coffee. yoghurt. cereal. pre-packed toast!
9am bus to la spezia. wanted to catch 10am train to Monterosso but was delayed 1hour6min! they kept making announcements extending the delay time (15min, 25min, 40min, 45min, 1hour). was ludicrous! even the italians were getting pissed and they're used to the shitty service! we're used to super efficient Tokyo trains being on time all the time... unless someone's jumped of course!
finally came and got to Monterosso 17min later! all that waiting for such a short ride!
but it's a heck of a walk!
hit the beach. 12euro50 for parasol, sunbed and chair rental for half a day (9 - 2pm or 2pm - 7pm)! could have public beached it but thought we'd try some luxury!
sand was burning hot. upper part of beach wasn't quite sand, more like really small pebbles. closer to water, pebbles got bigger.
water was perfect. very calm and clear. like Nice, got deep quickly.
did something i'd never do in Oz. swam out bout 100m from shore to a buoy. Oz ocean is too strong, dangerous and shark fear is ever present. here water is calm and although it's deep, can always see the bottom. lose most of shark fear, but still in the back of mind. you always read in books about "his instincts screamed at him to turn back". actually experienced that feeling! the further i went out, was like a little voice in the back of my head screaming "go back now! there are sharks! you're getting too tired! there's sure to be a rip somewhere out here!" but i ignored it and kept going. shark fear got really bad when swam over a strip of big rocks out deep cos there were schools of decent sized fish swimming around but was nothing there.
got to buoy and hung on for a while to rest for a bit. looked back for the first time and realized how far out i was and how stupid i was! :-)
chilled for a bit more then headed back to shore. bout halfway back felt like throwing up, but just took it easy switching between breaststroke and scissor style.
jee was standing on shore waiting and berated me for going out so far. still felt like purging, but i was like a little boy with his mum "did you see me?! did you see how far i went?!" :-)
chilled on the beach for a bit longer. coupla grannies were topless and for the first time, a coupla younger chicks too!
left beach at 2pm so we didn't have to pay for full day and moseyed around Monterosso a bit before hitting the trail linking it to Vernazza, the next town along the Cinque Terre.
we'd heard from a guy at the hostel (from Houston, Texas who'd actually checked out and was on the train to his next destination when he discovered that he'd lost his passport! came back to the hostel to stay for another coupla days and see if he could find it!) that it was best to start from Monterosso and walk thru the five to Riomaggiore cos the walk from Vernazza is the hardest, so that's what we did.
he wasn't bloody kidding!
i blame the fact that i swam for about an hour before hiking (any excuse!) and that i'm an asthmatic (any excuse no. 2!) AND that it was bloody hot as hell (any excuse no. 3!), but i was in a very bad state by the time we reached Vernazza. i wondered if all that hiking up Mt Lofty was of any use! maybe i would've been even worse off if we had Lofty-ed it!
my legs were shaking. i felt a bit dizzy. felt like throwing up for the second time that day! found a bench and chilled out for a fair while. it was about an hour and a half walk, but a lot of it is up and down (mostly up!) steep steps and even when we were climbing Mt Lofty, whenever we'd hit the steep parts, my breathing would get really laboured.
i'm uphill allergic!
:-)
found a sign that you'd see if you were heading from Vernazza to Monterosso, that stated:
Warning
In summer it is recommended to hike only in early morning or late afternoon.
they were right!
we had some gelati, bought another big bottle of water (had already gone thru two!) and a 500mL bottle of powerade which was aptly named Mountain Blast and i downed in a coupla minutes.
we started on our way again. i was inspired by Andrew "Bungy" McLeod (an Adelaide Crows football player for those heathens who are unaware!) who will sometimes after a break will throw up on the sideline then just have a drink and play the rest of the game like a star! if McLeod can do it, so can i! ;-) although there is a slight difference in physical fitness between us!
bout half hour out of Vernazza was a little bar. downed another bottle of powerade and kept on to Corniglia. was challenging, but nowhere near as difficult as the first trek.
the next village was Manorola and linking between Manorola and Riomaggiore is what they call Lover's Lane and it was really nice with the sun getting close to setting.
headed back to La Spezia and then back to the hostel. the trek in total took about 6 hours but with plenty of breaks along the way.
we slept well that night!
the 20th and 21st i've already rambled on about, but i have to say it again...
The Last Supper baby! ;-)
have just spent the last coupla nights in Venice which was gorgeous and i'll write more about later cos we've almost arrived in Florence!
god i've eaten so much pizza and gelati over the last week! :-)
(heavy) evBSc
JULY 14th
up at 6am to catch train to montpellier. 4 hours thru nice country side. wanted to catch train directly to Nice, but fully booked so took hour train to Avignon and then very hot train to Nice. no air con.
another ozzy went looking thru the different train cabins and found the 1st class section which was more comfortable and had better air con, so we moved there. ah, the bonus of having a 1st class eurail pass!
we didn't have accommodation booked in Nice. arrived at 845pm and it was gonna be interesting trying to find accommo at that time on a friday night!
had no coins for pay phone, so bought drink. went to use pay phone, only takes phone cards or credit cards! was gonna look in station for pay phone when a french lady came up and started trying to pimp us a "luxury apartment". she seemed a bit dodgy. kept feeding us lines like "if you don't like it when you first see it, i'll pay for your first night." thing is if we didn't like it, we wouldn't wanna stay there if it was free or not!
aparto was owned by an american woman who came along in her car. seemed nice enough, so went for it. jee was still dubious, but when we got there, we weren't disappointed. the 14th of july is our wedding anniversary so we were wanting somewhere nice in Nice and we got it!
there was some kinda celebration happening and we could see fireworks from our balcony so that touched the night off nicely!
the apartment was on the 4th floor of one of the busiest promenades near the beach and there were always lots of restaurants open till late - like about midnight or some even later! we had pizza and salad for dinner with some nice cheap french wine.
JULY 15th
lazy day in Nice.
woke up late. walked to station with intent to catch train to Monaco. asked at info office for nearby supermarket so we could buy water.
cheap water is our driving force me thinks! of course it's easy enough to buy bottled water anywhere, but there's a huge difference in price! a chilled 1.5Lt bottle from a stand might be 2 or 3 euro. but the cheapest we've found 1.5Lt bottles at the supermarket is 25cents! and every little bit counts!
i gotta admit, when i thought about going to europe, i thought we'd be having breakfast, lunch and dinner at cafes and restaurants. but no. whilst the majority of our meals are "out", we do sometimes buy stuff from the supermarket and stretch it out. we're in a limbo between backpackers who really need to watch their pennies and buy most of their food from supers and holiday makers going out on the town!
anywho, the super was about halfway back to our place so we did shopping for lunch, a couple of dinners and breaky for the next few days. spent less on those groceries than what we did for the previous night's dinner!! that really opened our eyes about how we could save some dough.
had lunch at home. felt sleepy so thought would have a siesta for half an hour. think we were accustomed to the spanish way of life for sure! didn't hear alarm and slept for 3 hours!
went down to beach for a swim. Nice's beaches are all pebble beaches. rocks are mostly flat and bout 5 - 10cm across. don't have to worry bout sand getting in your budgie smugglers, but a bit of a bitch to walk or lie on. if you can find a relatively comfortable spot, it almost feels like an accupressure bed! quite nice actually! but they can be a real cow to walk on in the middle of the day when they're really hot!
beaches are sectioned off in about 50m stretches for "private" and "public" beaches. on private beaches, you've gotta pay for a sunbed or chair and whether you want a parasol or not. it's not cheap and when you come from a country of beautiful and FREE beaches, it can be a pretty difficult concept to handle!
went public. fair amount of ppl, but enough space to feel comfortable.
jee had read in her info book (like the korean version of Lonely Planet) about chicks on the beaches of Nice going topless. she was right. but unfortunately there were only old women getting their tops off! for anyone who's seen There's Something About Mary, you might have in idea about what i witnessed! :-)
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Milan... City of sWANK...
Yesterday I was a bitter bitter little boy...
Now I'm a happy little camper!!
:-)
We got into Milan yesterday at about 2pm and spent bout 40mins walking around the train station looking for the tourist info desk which is in the station.
There is a tiny little sign over an archway telling you where to go which you'd miss if you blinked. The lady in at the info desk said that the station admin wouldn't let them put any bigger signage or signs pointing the way. oh well... no biggy...
Got to Hotel Eva with no probs, checked in and asked the reception guy (Patrick - very helpful and friendly) to see if he could call and book us in to see The Last Supper. Dan "BoyWonder" Gammon had warned me that we'd have to book to see it, so we were prepared... unfortunately Patrick couldn't get thru and i tried online but also with no luck...
So we set out for a bit of walking around to some sights.
Walked thru the main boutique area where I felt under-dressed just walking along the street!! Saw a few chicks which definitely looked like model material too... tall... impossible thin... and potential bitches!! :-)
Checked out a couple of the stores cos Jee is determined to purchase a bag while we are over here... preferable Chanel but I think I may have beaten her down to a lowly Gucci or Prada... we'll see... Haven't given her my full approval yet... heck the original Chanel bag she wanted was about $4000 oz bucks!!! I could buy a heck of a lot of Xbox360s with that kinda money... and they'd be a lot more useful than a bag too!! :-)
We walked to the Duomo (cathedral) which is huge and just makes you say "WOW!" when you first see it... just the detail and size is very impressive... think we could have taken an elevator to the roof but we tried to get in the actual church area of it... no go... i did read the sign on the way in which stated that as the Duomo is a "sanctuary of God" we have to wear the correct clothing etc and had a fair idea that we may have not been admitted... at this stage, still no problem...
We were a bit buggered, so we felt like a coke and a sit down. Across from the Duomo is a big plaza with a big statue in the middle of a guy on a horse. Can't remember who he is at present... anywho... past the statue and on the opposite side of the plaza from the Duomo, there was a Maccas and a few shops down a cafe. Jee suggested just grabbing a coke from maccas, but i felt like a full strength bottle, not watered down icy crap so we went to the cafe. Out the front of the cafe was a coke fridge, so we grabbed a couple of bottles out and walked into the cafe to the register to pay. SIX BLOODY EURO FOR TWO 500mL BOTTLES OF COKE later (you can buy the same bottle from a vending machine for 1euro50cents) we thought we'd sit down on the chairs outside the cafe for a bit and sip our coke.
After about 30 seconds of seated happiness, a waiter comes up and tells us that we can't sit down. But we bought these drinks here we protest. He says 3euro and 3euro for the bottles is not enough to sit down, they are just for passers-by. Jee protests and says that the people sitting down at the other table were drinking cans of coke and they were sitting down! The waiter tells us they paid 5euro for the cans!! We say fine and get up and go. I toss a comment to the waiter as we leave "Do you understand the words rip off?" but either he didn't hear, didn't understand or my words weren't expensive enough for his ears cos he didn't comment...
RageEv wanted to flip a table or accidentally knock glass off a nearby table as he left, but Don'tWantToBeArrestedInAForeignCountryEv held back RageEv and stopped him...
I haven't got too many complaints to make about bad or slow service in places or even sometimes when staff are rude, but the whole "class" thing or hierachy kinda shit really puts a bee in my bonnet... Just like that customer I wrote about I think in the second post of my blog... the whole holier than thou attitude really bugs me...
Hence the title City of sWANK...
At the time, Jee and I were bitchin about various things and Jee suggested that we leave Milan tomorrow morning instead of the day after, but I said no... we should give it a chance...
looked around a bit more and came across what appeared to be a politcal display in one of the plazas... i'm not sure still, but i think it was a bunch (when I say a bunch, I mean about 100 - 150!) of AC Milan fan(atic)s voicing their opinion about something... supposedly there are no games on at present but they had banners and were chanting theme song kinda things... not sure... they set off smoke flare thingys too!! the police and special forces presence was VERY heavy too... i guess soccer (football) supporters get rabid on a regular basis so men with guns is a necessity...
The fanatics started to move out of the plaza after about half an hour but headed down the same street we were going to go down to get back to our hotel!! the cops followed them and they held up traffic cos of the size of the group!! we took another path and looped around, but eventually caught their tail again. luckily they headed off down a different road from a plaza than we were going down, so all was good. on the edge of that plaza was a park, so we thought we'd chill there for a bit. A minute later there was a HUGE bang that sounded like a bomb going off!! Looked back to the plaza and there was some smoke. One of the fanatics must've dropped a firework in bin or something. About 5min later and then another 5min later there were two more explosions further down the road. Psycho bastards... if anyone had been near where they went off, could've caused some bodily damage...
Follow AFL... it's safer...
Back to hotel... but of a rest... had dinner at neighbouring restaurant Osterio dell Taverna or something like that... delicious and cheap... run by a of Italian speaking Chinese!!
So today we thought we'd hit The Last Supper place (Cenacolo Vinciano) this morning to check if there were any tickets left for today to see the big pretty piccy that's now very very very popular thanks to Dan Brown. Got there at about 11am and were told by the nice lady that it was fully booked until late August... BUGGER... When Dan "BoyWonder" Gammon had told me we'd need to book in advance, I thought a day or two... not a month or so!!!
So we step outside and flippantly chatted about maybe heading back this way after hitting Greece, but late August was a little later than what we were thinking...
a minute later...
a man steps out from the Cenacolo Vinciano office and asks if we want to see the Last Supper. I said yeah, but I thought he was some dodgy tout selling bogus tickets or real tickets at 20 times the real price... we followed him inside and talked to the nice lady again...
she said someone had just cancelled and that we could see THE LAST SUPPER!!
Can I get a HALLELUJAH?!?
HALLE--motherf£$%ing--LUJAH BABY!!
There was another couple who also got to get in... we all couldn't believe it...
I gotta admit... when I first walked in and saw it... I got goosebumps... and that wasn't from the blast of freezin cold air conditioning preserving the atmospheric temp of the room... the goosebumps was from the overwhelming fact that we'd just hit a massive low of being denied a once-in-a-lifetime experience and then hitting a huge high!!
It was amazing and yes the "dude" to the left of the big JC is definitely a "dudette" (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, read The Da Vinci Code or see the movie). Jee hasn't read or seen it and didn't know exactly what the painting was about (she knew it was Jesus and his homies) but she thought the dude was a chick too straight away...
They only let in 25 people per 15 minutes from 9am to 6pm...
That's 100 people per hour... 900 people per day...
They are booked out for a month or more!!
If you are thinking of going (even if it's in a years time!) call: +39-2-89421146 NOW!!
Cheers!!
evBSc
Yesterday I was a bitter bitter little boy...
Now I'm a happy little camper!!
:-)
We got into Milan yesterday at about 2pm and spent bout 40mins walking around the train station looking for the tourist info desk which is in the station.
There is a tiny little sign over an archway telling you where to go which you'd miss if you blinked. The lady in at the info desk said that the station admin wouldn't let them put any bigger signage or signs pointing the way. oh well... no biggy...
Got to Hotel Eva with no probs, checked in and asked the reception guy (Patrick - very helpful and friendly) to see if he could call and book us in to see The Last Supper. Dan "BoyWonder" Gammon had warned me that we'd have to book to see it, so we were prepared... unfortunately Patrick couldn't get thru and i tried online but also with no luck...
So we set out for a bit of walking around to some sights.
Walked thru the main boutique area where I felt under-dressed just walking along the street!! Saw a few chicks which definitely looked like model material too... tall... impossible thin... and potential bitches!! :-)
Checked out a couple of the stores cos Jee is determined to purchase a bag while we are over here... preferable Chanel but I think I may have beaten her down to a lowly Gucci or Prada... we'll see... Haven't given her my full approval yet... heck the original Chanel bag she wanted was about $4000 oz bucks!!! I could buy a heck of a lot of Xbox360s with that kinda money... and they'd be a lot more useful than a bag too!! :-)
We walked to the Duomo (cathedral) which is huge and just makes you say "WOW!" when you first see it... just the detail and size is very impressive... think we could have taken an elevator to the roof but we tried to get in the actual church area of it... no go... i did read the sign on the way in which stated that as the Duomo is a "sanctuary of God" we have to wear the correct clothing etc and had a fair idea that we may have not been admitted... at this stage, still no problem...
We were a bit buggered, so we felt like a coke and a sit down. Across from the Duomo is a big plaza with a big statue in the middle of a guy on a horse. Can't remember who he is at present... anywho... past the statue and on the opposite side of the plaza from the Duomo, there was a Maccas and a few shops down a cafe. Jee suggested just grabbing a coke from maccas, but i felt like a full strength bottle, not watered down icy crap so we went to the cafe. Out the front of the cafe was a coke fridge, so we grabbed a couple of bottles out and walked into the cafe to the register to pay. SIX BLOODY EURO FOR TWO 500mL BOTTLES OF COKE later (you can buy the same bottle from a vending machine for 1euro50cents) we thought we'd sit down on the chairs outside the cafe for a bit and sip our coke.
After about 30 seconds of seated happiness, a waiter comes up and tells us that we can't sit down. But we bought these drinks here we protest. He says 3euro and 3euro for the bottles is not enough to sit down, they are just for passers-by. Jee protests and says that the people sitting down at the other table were drinking cans of coke and they were sitting down! The waiter tells us they paid 5euro for the cans!! We say fine and get up and go. I toss a comment to the waiter as we leave "Do you understand the words rip off?" but either he didn't hear, didn't understand or my words weren't expensive enough for his ears cos he didn't comment...
RageEv wanted to flip a table or accidentally knock glass off a nearby table as he left, but Don'tWantToBeArrestedInAForeignCountryEv held back RageEv and stopped him...
I haven't got too many complaints to make about bad or slow service in places or even sometimes when staff are rude, but the whole "class" thing or hierachy kinda shit really puts a bee in my bonnet... Just like that customer I wrote about I think in the second post of my blog... the whole holier than thou attitude really bugs me...
Hence the title City of sWANK...
At the time, Jee and I were bitchin about various things and Jee suggested that we leave Milan tomorrow morning instead of the day after, but I said no... we should give it a chance...
looked around a bit more and came across what appeared to be a politcal display in one of the plazas... i'm not sure still, but i think it was a bunch (when I say a bunch, I mean about 100 - 150!) of AC Milan fan(atic)s voicing their opinion about something... supposedly there are no games on at present but they had banners and were chanting theme song kinda things... not sure... they set off smoke flare thingys too!! the police and special forces presence was VERY heavy too... i guess soccer (football) supporters get rabid on a regular basis so men with guns is a necessity...
The fanatics started to move out of the plaza after about half an hour but headed down the same street we were going to go down to get back to our hotel!! the cops followed them and they held up traffic cos of the size of the group!! we took another path and looped around, but eventually caught their tail again. luckily they headed off down a different road from a plaza than we were going down, so all was good. on the edge of that plaza was a park, so we thought we'd chill there for a bit. A minute later there was a HUGE bang that sounded like a bomb going off!! Looked back to the plaza and there was some smoke. One of the fanatics must've dropped a firework in bin or something. About 5min later and then another 5min later there were two more explosions further down the road. Psycho bastards... if anyone had been near where they went off, could've caused some bodily damage...
Follow AFL... it's safer...
Back to hotel... but of a rest... had dinner at neighbouring restaurant Osterio dell Taverna or something like that... delicious and cheap... run by a of Italian speaking Chinese!!
So today we thought we'd hit The Last Supper place (Cenacolo Vinciano) this morning to check if there were any tickets left for today to see the big pretty piccy that's now very very very popular thanks to Dan Brown. Got there at about 11am and were told by the nice lady that it was fully booked until late August... BUGGER... When Dan "BoyWonder" Gammon had told me we'd need to book in advance, I thought a day or two... not a month or so!!!
So we step outside and flippantly chatted about maybe heading back this way after hitting Greece, but late August was a little later than what we were thinking...
a minute later...
a man steps out from the Cenacolo Vinciano office and asks if we want to see the Last Supper. I said yeah, but I thought he was some dodgy tout selling bogus tickets or real tickets at 20 times the real price... we followed him inside and talked to the nice lady again...
she said someone had just cancelled and that we could see THE LAST SUPPER!!
Can I get a HALLELUJAH?!?
HALLE--motherf£$%ing--LUJAH BABY!!
There was another couple who also got to get in... we all couldn't believe it...
I gotta admit... when I first walked in and saw it... I got goosebumps... and that wasn't from the blast of freezin cold air conditioning preserving the atmospheric temp of the room... the goosebumps was from the overwhelming fact that we'd just hit a massive low of being denied a once-in-a-lifetime experience and then hitting a huge high!!
It was amazing and yes the "dude" to the left of the big JC is definitely a "dudette" (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, read The Da Vinci Code or see the movie). Jee hasn't read or seen it and didn't know exactly what the painting was about (she knew it was Jesus and his homies) but she thought the dude was a chick too straight away...
They only let in 25 people per 15 minutes from 9am to 6pm...
That's 100 people per hour... 900 people per day...
They are booked out for a month or more!!
If you are thinking of going (even if it's in a years time!) call: +39-2-89421146 NOW!!
Cheers!!
evBSc
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
The Hips don't Lie... but I wish Shakira would die...
That bloody song is so frickin popular in Europe at present.
I kid you not... in Spain I heard it at least 3 times a day, and I wasn't even trying to listen to the radio! It was just when we were walking thru streets etc!!
And now in Nice, I still hear it!!
ARGH!!!
Any who...
that's not much in the way of "what are evBSc and Jee doing in europe at present?" kinda news is it now...
so much to type... so little time...
before heading to europe, i had images of blogging at least once every two days...
as you can see, that hasn't occured...
net cafes or free net use at hostels tends to be focussed on desparately looking for where we'll be staying next, not frivilously blogging away my time!!
:-)
I'm keeping a MacExchange as well...
just for fun!!
started in Barcelona cos I hadn't thought of it until then...
so far:
A medium Big Mac meal in:
Barcelona, Spain = 5euro45cents
Nice, France = 5euro50cents
Been keeping some quick notes on my phone so i can put up stuff on here without forgetting it in the mean time... here are some of the things we've been up to...
9th July
We were in Seville in the south of Spain.
Watch Italy beat France in the World Cup Final at a normal time instead of 4am or whatever it was in Australia!!! :-)
Was going for France cos Italy should never have gotten that far...
Zidane was THE MAN!! He really went out of his last World Cup with a bang!!
I remember last World Cup they were saying he was too old and wouldn't make another... did he ever prove them and especially Materazzi wrong!!
My Bro sent me thru this link which I love!!
Watch Zidane go out with a bang in many different ways!!
Lovers of Street Fighter and MK will enjoy some especially!!
If the link doesn't work, try pasting this addy into your browser:
http://javimoya.com/blog/pics/200607/zidane.htm
Anywho watched it at this little Wine and Tapas place in Sevilla.
Drank plenty of 1 Euro beers and got finely sloshed!!
10th July
Had seen most of Sevilla, so had a lazy day.
little bit of sight seeing and some shopping.
caught the over night train to Barcelona which came 45 minutes late, but arrived on time in Barcelona!! We soon learnt the Spainish word for late or delayed = DEMORADO!!
ARGH!!
no time!
gotta leave...
shall write more hopefully soon...
love ya all!!
thanx for some of the comments too peeps!!
evBSc
That bloody song is so frickin popular in Europe at present.
I kid you not... in Spain I heard it at least 3 times a day, and I wasn't even trying to listen to the radio! It was just when we were walking thru streets etc!!
And now in Nice, I still hear it!!
ARGH!!!
Any who...
that's not much in the way of "what are evBSc and Jee doing in europe at present?" kinda news is it now...
so much to type... so little time...
before heading to europe, i had images of blogging at least once every two days...
as you can see, that hasn't occured...
net cafes or free net use at hostels tends to be focussed on desparately looking for where we'll be staying next, not frivilously blogging away my time!!
:-)
I'm keeping a MacExchange as well...
just for fun!!
started in Barcelona cos I hadn't thought of it until then...
so far:
A medium Big Mac meal in:
Barcelona, Spain = 5euro45cents
Nice, France = 5euro50cents
Been keeping some quick notes on my phone so i can put up stuff on here without forgetting it in the mean time... here are some of the things we've been up to...
9th July
We were in Seville in the south of Spain.
Watch Italy beat France in the World Cup Final at a normal time instead of 4am or whatever it was in Australia!!! :-)
Was going for France cos Italy should never have gotten that far...
Zidane was THE MAN!! He really went out of his last World Cup with a bang!!
I remember last World Cup they were saying he was too old and wouldn't make another... did he ever prove them and especially Materazzi wrong!!
My Bro sent me thru this link which I love!!
Watch Zidane go out with a bang in many different ways!!
Lovers of Street Fighter and MK will enjoy some especially!!
If the link doesn't work, try pasting this addy into your browser:
http://javimoya.com/blog/pics/200607/zidane.htm
Anywho watched it at this little Wine and Tapas place in Sevilla.
Drank plenty of 1 Euro beers and got finely sloshed!!
10th July
Had seen most of Sevilla, so had a lazy day.
little bit of sight seeing and some shopping.
caught the over night train to Barcelona which came 45 minutes late, but arrived on time in Barcelona!! We soon learnt the Spainish word for late or delayed = DEMORADO!!
ARGH!!
no time!
gotta leave...
shall write more hopefully soon...
love ya all!!
thanx for some of the comments too peeps!!
evBSc
Thursday, July 13, 2006
My name is Evan Johnson B.Sc...
I found out this morning, that I passed my final subject for my Bachelor of Science...
I can sum up my feelings in two simple words...
FUCK YEAH!!!
From now on, please refer to me as Evan Johnson B.Sc.
It´s been 10 years in the making for that little piece of paper, that in the end, may be useless...
But we´ll see...
Please pass on the word...
Yours in high spirits...
Evan Johnson B.Sc.
I found out this morning, that I passed my final subject for my Bachelor of Science...
I can sum up my feelings in two simple words...
FUCK YEAH!!!
From now on, please refer to me as Evan Johnson B.Sc.
It´s been 10 years in the making for that little piece of paper, that in the end, may be useless...
But we´ll see...
Please pass on the word...
Yours in high spirits...
Evan Johnson B.Sc.
Wednesday, July 12, 2006
How Spain Tried to Break our Spirits... AND FAILED!!!
There´s a lot to get thru so I´m thinkin of keeping things brief... but the devil (and probably the humour) is in the details, so we´ll see how things go...
5th of July
0530 - Wake up after 4 hours of sleep.
0630 - During packing, Jee gets frustrated with her combination padlock on her bag and accidentally changes the combination. I tell her I´ll figure out how to open it when we get to Madrid.
0710 - Sis-in-law sees us off and we catch a bus to Narita airport.
0910 - Amazingly arrive at Narita Airport. I was expecting it would take 3 hours by bus, but traffic must have been thin...
1000 - We´ve checked in and browsing thru various duty free places.
1230 - Board plane to go to Amsterdam. Flight takes 12 hours. I try to sleep a couple of times but with no success. Finally got to watch V for Vendetta and loved it. Nothing like a good big brother movie! As the movie replays over and over during the flight, caught the final fight scene between V and the guard men a couple more times!! :)
***from now I´ll write two different times: the time for Europe and what time our bodies think it is within the brackets***
1730 (0030) - Arrive in Amsterdam. Can´t stop myself from smiling when I hear those immortal words "Welcome to Amsterdam", made famous in a Bond movie which I don´t think I´ve even seen!! I´m feeling ok, but in the last 20mins of the flight, Jee fell asleep and is now like the walking dead. We do some window shopping at duty free again, but this time I buy a pair of new sun glasses which I´d been contemplating for a while. This shopping also has the miraculous effect of awakening Jee to a bright and perky state. Nothing like a bit of browsing to get the girl´s blood pumping!!
1900 (0200) - See a couple of airport security guards with H&K MP5 SMGs.
1930 (0230) - We´re meant to be boarding our flight, but the plane hasn´t even turned up!
2015 (0315) - Finally board plane. Feeling very frickin tired at this stage. Just want a bed some where... any where!!! Think I may have passed out on the plane momentarily, but if anything, it made me feel sleepier...
2245 (0545) - Arrive in Madrid. Have now been awake for more than 24 hours straight... but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... almost near our beds...
2300 (0600) - No sign of our luggage on the carousel yet... other people have collected theirs. They must have been coming straight from Amsterdam. But there is a tour group of Japanese people who must´ve came from Narita like us and they don´t have their bags either.
0000 (0700) - Still no sign of bags but the Japanese tour group leader is kicking up a major fuss with the baggage handlers in very good Spainish. From what I can understand, they´re not even sure if our luggage is in Madrid or still in Amsterdam!!
0030 (0730) - Finally get our bags. Start looking for the bus or Metro line that´s meant to get us to hostel but with no luck. Decide to taxi it.
0115 (0815) - Arrive at MAD Hostel. We had pre-booked in Adelaide with the anticipation that we may be jetlagged and just looking for a long sleep. We´re told that the hostel is full... but quickly told that our reservation is being held at a nearby hostel that is affiliated with MAD. A two street walk away and we...
0130 (0830) - Arrive at CAT´s Hostel. Get our keys and head to our room. Slightly damp and mouldy smelling, but not too bad. We booked a double room with bathroom. Jee was expecting a double bed... there is a bunk bed... Jee none to happy, but gives in to sleep quickly. I decide to recharge digital camera´s battery (bought a new 10 megapixel beast in Japan!!). Try to open the combination padlock on my bag... huh... can´t seem to open it... bugger it... must be too sleepy...
0200 (0900) - Finally get to sleep... TWENTY SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS LATER!!
And then my body automatically woke up at 8am!! Bastard!!
Felt decent, so got up and tried to open my bag again... no such luck... WTF!!?? When I was originally setting the combination, I couldn´t think of a three digit combo, so I decided to make it our departure date: 2-9-6 ... 29th of June... but now for some reason, I cannot open either of the locks on my frickin bag which both had the same combination!!!
WHY GOD WHY!?
Jump on the hostel´s comps after breakfast (croissant, coffee and OJ) and check sites for cracking combination locks... no luck, but there is a site describing that if you loop a sock thru the padlock and jerk down quick and hard (I have lots of practice with this) you can sometimes open the padlock.
Give this a try.
Nothing happening.
Next option... BRUTE FORCE!!!
Be a man!! Do the right thing!!
Twist the sock around the padlock and then keep twisting till the padlock loop buckles and opens up!! MANLY MAN!!
Do it to Jee lock as well.
Luckily we´ve got a couple of spare padlocks... with keys this time...
Bit of nice site seeing in Madrid, but take it pretty easy. Feeling a little tired, but no real jet lag. This is the first time for both of us to fly to different time zones, and i think we we´re pretty lucky avoiding the J-lag...
Return to hostel...
Place day bags in room next to locker where we´d locked up our big bags. Had some of my clothing bags on the floor and shoes next to locker too.
Go to hostel bar and have a bite to eat and a beer or two.
Return to room...
When i first opened the room, I thought someone had sprayed a hose thru the open window... but we weren´t that lucky...
At some stage during maintenance of CAT´s Hostel, there was a leaky pipe in the ceiling. Someone had put a plastic bucket under the dripping pipe. Everybody´s happy yes...
The plaster ceiling panel upon which the bucket is sitting is dry for the time being...
After God knows how long... weeks? months? the drips fill up the bucket and start to over flow onto the plaster ceiling panel and hence creating the damp spot I noticed on the ceiling when we first entered our room...
When the plaster gets damp enough, it collapses...
When plaster ceiling panel collapses, it drops plastic bucket full of water straight onto our lockers and all the stuff surrounding them... i.e. - Ev´s shoes, clothing etc...
Long story short (i can never tell a short story), guy at reception calls the boss to come around (this is at about 1030pm i think) to hostel. We bitched about how we were originally meant to be staying at MAD hostel which is in a newer building. There are no double rooms at MAD though... they just list them on the net so that if anyone books them, they get shunted off to CAT´s... punks...
We got free tokens and washing powder to clean all our stuff and got our money back on a days stay so that was good...
time to finish up!!
more later!!
(it´s been fun!!) ;)
There´s a lot to get thru so I´m thinkin of keeping things brief... but the devil (and probably the humour) is in the details, so we´ll see how things go...
5th of July
0530 - Wake up after 4 hours of sleep.
0630 - During packing, Jee gets frustrated with her combination padlock on her bag and accidentally changes the combination. I tell her I´ll figure out how to open it when we get to Madrid.
0710 - Sis-in-law sees us off and we catch a bus to Narita airport.
0910 - Amazingly arrive at Narita Airport. I was expecting it would take 3 hours by bus, but traffic must have been thin...
1000 - We´ve checked in and browsing thru various duty free places.
1230 - Board plane to go to Amsterdam. Flight takes 12 hours. I try to sleep a couple of times but with no success. Finally got to watch V for Vendetta and loved it. Nothing like a good big brother movie! As the movie replays over and over during the flight, caught the final fight scene between V and the guard men a couple more times!! :)
***from now I´ll write two different times: the time for Europe and what time our bodies think it is within the brackets***
1730 (0030) - Arrive in Amsterdam. Can´t stop myself from smiling when I hear those immortal words "Welcome to Amsterdam", made famous in a Bond movie which I don´t think I´ve even seen!! I´m feeling ok, but in the last 20mins of the flight, Jee fell asleep and is now like the walking dead. We do some window shopping at duty free again, but this time I buy a pair of new sun glasses which I´d been contemplating for a while. This shopping also has the miraculous effect of awakening Jee to a bright and perky state. Nothing like a bit of browsing to get the girl´s blood pumping!!
1900 (0200) - See a couple of airport security guards with H&K MP5 SMGs.
1930 (0230) - We´re meant to be boarding our flight, but the plane hasn´t even turned up!
2015 (0315) - Finally board plane. Feeling very frickin tired at this stage. Just want a bed some where... any where!!! Think I may have passed out on the plane momentarily, but if anything, it made me feel sleepier...
2245 (0545) - Arrive in Madrid. Have now been awake for more than 24 hours straight... but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel... almost near our beds...
2300 (0600) - No sign of our luggage on the carousel yet... other people have collected theirs. They must have been coming straight from Amsterdam. But there is a tour group of Japanese people who must´ve came from Narita like us and they don´t have their bags either.
0000 (0700) - Still no sign of bags but the Japanese tour group leader is kicking up a major fuss with the baggage handlers in very good Spainish. From what I can understand, they´re not even sure if our luggage is in Madrid or still in Amsterdam!!
0030 (0730) - Finally get our bags. Start looking for the bus or Metro line that´s meant to get us to hostel but with no luck. Decide to taxi it.
0115 (0815) - Arrive at MAD Hostel. We had pre-booked in Adelaide with the anticipation that we may be jetlagged and just looking for a long sleep. We´re told that the hostel is full... but quickly told that our reservation is being held at a nearby hostel that is affiliated with MAD. A two street walk away and we...
0130 (0830) - Arrive at CAT´s Hostel. Get our keys and head to our room. Slightly damp and mouldy smelling, but not too bad. We booked a double room with bathroom. Jee was expecting a double bed... there is a bunk bed... Jee none to happy, but gives in to sleep quickly. I decide to recharge digital camera´s battery (bought a new 10 megapixel beast in Japan!!). Try to open the combination padlock on my bag... huh... can´t seem to open it... bugger it... must be too sleepy...
0200 (0900) - Finally get to sleep... TWENTY SEVEN AND A HALF HOURS LATER!!
And then my body automatically woke up at 8am!! Bastard!!
Felt decent, so got up and tried to open my bag again... no such luck... WTF!!?? When I was originally setting the combination, I couldn´t think of a three digit combo, so I decided to make it our departure date: 2-9-6 ... 29th of June... but now for some reason, I cannot open either of the locks on my frickin bag which both had the same combination!!!
WHY GOD WHY!?
Jump on the hostel´s comps after breakfast (croissant, coffee and OJ) and check sites for cracking combination locks... no luck, but there is a site describing that if you loop a sock thru the padlock and jerk down quick and hard (I have lots of practice with this) you can sometimes open the padlock.
Give this a try.
Nothing happening.
Next option... BRUTE FORCE!!!
Be a man!! Do the right thing!!
Twist the sock around the padlock and then keep twisting till the padlock loop buckles and opens up!! MANLY MAN!!
Do it to Jee lock as well.
Luckily we´ve got a couple of spare padlocks... with keys this time...
Bit of nice site seeing in Madrid, but take it pretty easy. Feeling a little tired, but no real jet lag. This is the first time for both of us to fly to different time zones, and i think we we´re pretty lucky avoiding the J-lag...
Return to hostel...
Place day bags in room next to locker where we´d locked up our big bags. Had some of my clothing bags on the floor and shoes next to locker too.
Go to hostel bar and have a bite to eat and a beer or two.
Return to room...
When i first opened the room, I thought someone had sprayed a hose thru the open window... but we weren´t that lucky...
At some stage during maintenance of CAT´s Hostel, there was a leaky pipe in the ceiling. Someone had put a plastic bucket under the dripping pipe. Everybody´s happy yes...
The plaster ceiling panel upon which the bucket is sitting is dry for the time being...
After God knows how long... weeks? months? the drips fill up the bucket and start to over flow onto the plaster ceiling panel and hence creating the damp spot I noticed on the ceiling when we first entered our room...
When the plaster gets damp enough, it collapses...
When plaster ceiling panel collapses, it drops plastic bucket full of water straight onto our lockers and all the stuff surrounding them... i.e. - Ev´s shoes, clothing etc...
Long story short (i can never tell a short story), guy at reception calls the boss to come around (this is at about 1030pm i think) to hostel. We bitched about how we were originally meant to be staying at MAD hostel which is in a newer building. There are no double rooms at MAD though... they just list them on the net so that if anyone books them, they get shunted off to CAT´s... punks...
We got free tokens and washing powder to clean all our stuff and got our money back on a days stay so that was good...
time to finish up!!
more later!!
(it´s been fun!!) ;)
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
don't know if this will work, but will give it a try.
in sunny Seville in southern spain at the mo.
will hopefully get a chance to go to a net cafe for a decent amount of time today to post on blog. had some rather colourful happenings since we arrived in europe that i'd love to share!
jee's looking around at clothing stores. it's bloody sale time in spain and everything according to jee is "so cheap!" :-)
have told her that anything she buys, she has to carry, so that's put her off a little... i think!
well instead of writing the bible on my mobile, i'll stop here and post more later!
adios!!
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
JA NE BAI BAI!!!
Gotta go and board our flight in 6 mins but thought I'd just post a quickie!
Will hopefully post more detailed stuff once we hit Spain, including pics (and now that i have a 10 mega pixel camera, they should be HUUUUUGE!!!).
Glad to have caught up with so many friends in japan and sorry we couldn't see everyone.
So much to do in such a small amount of time...
We will hopefully be back soon (maybe next year even) so there'll be more catch up time then.
Not looking forward to about 14 hours of flying, but without that teleporter i keep thinking about making, I guess i'll just have to put up with it!! :-)
So I guess it's "Sayonara" for now, and soon "Hola"!!
Gotta go and board our flight in 6 mins but thought I'd just post a quickie!
Will hopefully post more detailed stuff once we hit Spain, including pics (and now that i have a 10 mega pixel camera, they should be HUUUUUGE!!!).
Glad to have caught up with so many friends in japan and sorry we couldn't see everyone.
So much to do in such a small amount of time...
We will hopefully be back soon (maybe next year even) so there'll be more catch up time then.
Not looking forward to about 14 hours of flying, but without that teleporter i keep thinking about making, I guess i'll just have to put up with it!! :-)
So I guess it's "Sayonara" for now, and soon "Hola"!!
Saturday, July 01, 2006
I SHAVE IN SEIZA...
Often there are little mini seats in japanese bathrooms so that whilst one is washing oneself, one can sit and relax. I didn't need or want for one this morn till I decided to shave.
I usually shave in the shower using a mirror that was bestowed on me by the blessed Cheech (click the link to the right to see what Cheech is cookin at present!). But this morn there was a mirror all ready and waiting, but at waist level.
Hence the need for a seat.
But said seat was in absentia (is that the word??).
So I decided to shave in seiza.
For those who don't know, seiza is the traditional way of sitting in Japan, often associated with meditation. Basically it's kneeling with your feet underneath you.
Not the most comfortable of postitions even on squishy carpet.
But I was reveling in the fact that I was kneeling on hard tiles and cutting myself... well cutting the hair off my face... so masochistic... so WUNDERBAR!!
I was tempted to blast myself with freezing cold water to complete the experience, but denied my the errr... "pleasure"... :-)
Why the heck I'm writing about that I have no idea.
Anywho after a day of window shopping - which I'd like to write in detail, but now is not the time - we had a great feed of japanese food at Tengu the izakaya chain and then met up with old friends at The Hub. It was the best... 3 years is a long time, but when you see good friends in the flesh again, those three years feel like only three days...
Whilst I'd really like to be hitting the sack right now (3am is late even for more... and especially if you've gotta get up early to go sight seeing!!) I have to discuss one further long lost love...
Starbuck's Macha Frappacino...
3 words... so much more meaningful than "i love you"...
they convey passion... power... happiness... bliss...
And just to prove the point, here is yours truly sipping daintily on one waggin his happy tail!!
Get one india when you have the chance!!
Well in the couple of minutes it's taken to upload this pic I've really hit a wall and am sooooooooo sleepiy... catch ya!
Often there are little mini seats in japanese bathrooms so that whilst one is washing oneself, one can sit and relax. I didn't need or want for one this morn till I decided to shave.
I usually shave in the shower using a mirror that was bestowed on me by the blessed Cheech (click the link to the right to see what Cheech is cookin at present!). But this morn there was a mirror all ready and waiting, but at waist level.
Hence the need for a seat.
But said seat was in absentia (is that the word??).
So I decided to shave in seiza.
For those who don't know, seiza is the traditional way of sitting in Japan, often associated with meditation. Basically it's kneeling with your feet underneath you.
Not the most comfortable of postitions even on squishy carpet.
But I was reveling in the fact that I was kneeling on hard tiles and cutting myself... well cutting the hair off my face... so masochistic... so WUNDERBAR!!
I was tempted to blast myself with freezing cold water to complete the experience, but denied my the errr... "pleasure"... :-)
Why the heck I'm writing about that I have no idea.
Anywho after a day of window shopping - which I'd like to write in detail, but now is not the time - we had a great feed of japanese food at Tengu the izakaya chain and then met up with old friends at The Hub. It was the best... 3 years is a long time, but when you see good friends in the flesh again, those three years feel like only three days...
Whilst I'd really like to be hitting the sack right now (3am is late even for more... and especially if you've gotta get up early to go sight seeing!!) I have to discuss one further long lost love...
Starbuck's Macha Frappacino...
3 words... so much more meaningful than "i love you"...
they convey passion... power... happiness... bliss...
And just to prove the point, here is yours truly sipping daintily on one waggin his happy tail!!
Get one india when you have the chance!!
Well in the couple of minutes it's taken to upload this pic I've really hit a wall and am sooooooooo sleepiy... catch ya!
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