Yes, we have been overusing the above two expressions while in Rome and France. There's lots of updating on our travels, so I'll try to let the pictures speak for us (provided they upload properly....fingers crossed!).
Here's an overview of some highlights:
Sicily:
- We went to Palermo, the birthplace of the Cosa Nostra (the Sicilian Mafia) and the site of many an epic mob war in the 70s, 80s, and earlier. Despite this, it was a very beautiful city full of nice people. Although we really didn't have time to explore it very well, we did see their catacombs, which is probably one of the creepiest places on Earth. Picture hundreds of dead bodies in various states of preservation (some had skin, eyes and hair still attached, others were just skeletons) all dressed up in clothes and lining the walls staring at you when you walk through the hallways. There was also a dead baby room. They didn't allow pictures inside, which many of you are probably very thankful about.
- After Palermo we went to a small beach resort town called Brolo on the recommendation of a lady at the train station. Unfortunately the only place to stay was a 3 star hotel that included breakfast and dinner (a bit out of our price range). Having no other place to stay, we decided to stay for one night, which quickly turned into 2 nights when we discovered that they had free-flow taps with UNLIMITED red & white wine! Needless to say, we had a noise complaint the first night we stayed there...
- After Brolo we made our way to Acireale, which is a beautiful Sicilian city/town. From there we walked and drove around to various beautiful beaches, churches, eating places, etc. including Mt. Etna (PACKED with busloads of tourist monkeys...uggh!)
Rome:
- Incredible city...there are little bits of history everywhere you look, and the most fantastic food markets everywhere. The tomatoes that you got at the vegetable markets were like heaven...we would usually eat about 2kg of tomatoes per day between the 4 of us.
- We rented rooms at an apartment with a shared bathroom from a very entertaining character. It was called a "bed & breakfast" but should have been called a "bed & no breakfast"...our host was too hungover to make it to breakfast the first night, and then had to go to his brother's wedding for a few nights. He took a few euros off of the price though, so it was all good. While we were there, we met a very nice couple named Mette and Alberto who were from Daenmark and Spain, respectively.
- We met up with Galvin, Vin and David for a couple evenings and had some good food, saw a concert and discussed our respective travels. Galvin's travels are being documented on www.galvinclancey.blogspot.com ...check it out if you're addicted to reading travel blogs!
-We said goodbye to Karen after a wonderful 2 or 3 weeks (not sure...time flies when you're having fun) travelling with us.
Cinque Terre:
- Beautiful place! It is a national park just southeast of Genova in the Liguria region of Italy. We had an apartment with a kitchen, which we used to make delicious Italian feasts every night. We hiked every day for around 10 km or so...beautiful hikes amoung the vineyards that line the terrassed hills along the breathtakingly blue mediterranean...incredible! Andrew, you would be glad to have missed the death marches...
- The Cinque Terre consists of 5 main villages (all hiking distance from one another). We stayed in Corniglia, the center village (pop. 240) which is the least touristy of them (probably due to the 400 stairs that you have to climb to get to it).
Nice:
- After waking up at 5am or so, we tried to take a train direct from the Cinque Terre to Paris, but had to go to Nice to transfer. Our morning train ride included a dirty Italian couple performing disgusting activities on the seats in front of us...not a pleasant way to start a long day of travel! Upon our arrival in Nice, we discovered that only a small portion of the seats on trains are available for Eurail pass holders, and they were all booked except for an overnight train later that evening (on which there were only seats available...no couchettes). BOO Eurail! We were forced to have a day in Nice, which turned out to be very entertaining.
- After a delicious French lunch, we wandered down to the beach. It was probably the most packed beach in all of France, made even more so by the fact that they happened to be holding an Ironman triathalon there that day. 42.2 km run, 180 km bike ride, and some unknown amount of swimming....these guys (and the occasional girl) were unbelievably fit! It really made you feel like a pansy watching them.
- To escape the tourist crowds, we headed away from the beach to the acropolis of Nice. When we arrived, we discovered some awesome bands warming up, people playing soccer and rugby, French hippies juggling and playing with balls on chains (hippie clowns?) and all sorts of random activities. It was awesome! After wandering around and seeing various hammer & sickle logos, we gradually realized that it was some sort of festival being put on by the PCF (Partie Communiste Francais...or the French communist party for the linguistically challenged). There was awesome music though, and no guys with guns confronting protestors, so we decided to stick around for a bit and watch the bands play before catching our night train.
- Also while in Nice, we saw a car hit a very young child (the child seemed to be OK), and then the father of said child open up the door of the car and trying to pull out the old man who was driving it to beat him up. Numerous people came to break up the fight. Yet another exciting event to add to the day!
- On the night train we met a girl from Ireland and a girl from Texas, had some interesting conversations, and then tried (fairly unsuccessfully) to sleep.
Now we're in Paris, waiting to see what adventures lie in store for us! Some pictures are uploaded....check the picture link on the sidebar to our picasa page. Not all of the pictures are up, and they aren't yet captioned, but if you just can't wait to see them, feel free to have a look.
Eric
Jun 26, 2007
Jun 21, 2007
Safe and sound in Cinque Terre
Internet's expensive here, so I'll keep things short. Unfortunately we haven't been able to upload pictures in awhile, and I think we won't be able to until Paris (sometime after Sunday June 24th). There are LOTS of pictures to upload....tonnes of great adventures.
Rome was wonderful, but like any big city, it's nice to get a break. We decided to take our break in the tiny village of Corniglia (pop. 240) in the Cinque Terre (pronounced CHINK-weh TAY-reh) region of northern Italy, just South-East of Genoa along the coast. The whole region is stunning and has lots of great hikes....5 villages to explore that take at most a few hours to walk between. There are a fair number of tourists here, but they're a different breed...there are no giant tour buses full of monkeys, and the rule of the 20 minute walk gets rid of most of the irritating ones here (hiking is pretty much a necessity for our village). We have a wonderful little apartment with a kitchen, so we've been going to the markets and making our own delicious meals. And did I mention that it's surrounded with vineyards?
Sunday we head to Paris (possibly after a brief bouillabaise stop in Marseilles), where we will meet up with Sanaee! Stay tuned...
Eric
P.S. Thanks again to everyone for your comments...it's great to hear from you all even if we don't always respond!
Rome was wonderful, but like any big city, it's nice to get a break. We decided to take our break in the tiny village of Corniglia (pop. 240) in the Cinque Terre (pronounced CHINK-weh TAY-reh) region of northern Italy, just South-East of Genoa along the coast. The whole region is stunning and has lots of great hikes....5 villages to explore that take at most a few hours to walk between. There are a fair number of tourists here, but they're a different breed...there are no giant tour buses full of monkeys, and the rule of the 20 minute walk gets rid of most of the irritating ones here (hiking is pretty much a necessity for our village). We have a wonderful little apartment with a kitchen, so we've been going to the markets and making our own delicious meals. And did I mention that it's surrounded with vineyards?
Sunday we head to Paris (possibly after a brief bouillabaise stop in Marseilles), where we will meet up with Sanaee! Stay tuned...
Eric
P.S. Thanks again to everyone for your comments...it's great to hear from you all even if we don't always respond!
Jun 15, 2007
The Vatican
Originally I was going to write a very long post/rant about the Vatican, but for politeness sake (and self-censorship), I will keep it short, but with some poignant comments. To begin this story, I'll relate a couple of events that lead up to the Vatican 'climax'.
First, we conquered the Colliseum (along with throngs of other tourist-conquerors). The outside of the Colliseum was very impressive, but only a fraction of which was original. During various revolutions and earthquakes, much of the Colliseum was destroyed and dismantled as it was treated as a very accessible marble quarry... especially for the Vatican, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We learned a few interesting tidbits, such as the up to thousands of wild beasts that were killed every day left parts of Africa extinct of these animals (tigers, lions, etc), and that the meat of these animals was given to the Roman people. This was a special treat, since the people normally didn't eat meat at all. They also had elevators in the center of the Colliseum to be able to simulate landscapes that would benefit the carnivorous animals, and surprise the gladiators.
Next, we got a free tour with some nominally history student (based on how entertaining he was, there were some questions as to whether he was an actor or comedian) of the Roman Forum (or the 2% that's left of it). During this tour, he highlighted all parts of the Forum that we would have glossed right over, such as the toilets with their brushes (hint: the brushes weren't for cleaning the toilets), or the reason that no Roman statues have hair on their arms or legs. Trust me, it would be naive to assume that it was difficult to carve arm hair onto statues ;-) Supposedly the ancient Romans would bathe up to three times per day by rubbing themselves with olive oil, and then patting themselves with sand, and then scraping it off with a thin bronze tool, which happened to rub off the many Roman hairs. I bet they smelled marvelous afterwards.
This guide was so entertaining we decided we would try to hire him for the Vatican tour. Unfortunately, ancient Roman fate decided that we would be unable to find him the next morning and end up sitting in a line for the Vatican museum to open for 1.5 hours talking politics to some Israelis. I must have done tolerably, because they invited me to Israel.
Here is where I will become brief, and let you read between the lines. Here are some to help get you warmed up:
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
For the mathematical among you, there is something special about those lines, can you guess? I might bestow my bongo point upon you (except if it's bongo, because he can't get his own points back).
Highlights:
First, we conquered the Colliseum (along with throngs of other tourist-conquerors). The outside of the Colliseum was very impressive, but only a fraction of which was original. During various revolutions and earthquakes, much of the Colliseum was destroyed and dismantled as it was treated as a very accessible marble quarry... especially for the Vatican, but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We learned a few interesting tidbits, such as the up to thousands of wild beasts that were killed every day left parts of Africa extinct of these animals (tigers, lions, etc), and that the meat of these animals was given to the Roman people. This was a special treat, since the people normally didn't eat meat at all. They also had elevators in the center of the Colliseum to be able to simulate landscapes that would benefit the carnivorous animals, and surprise the gladiators.
Next, we got a free tour with some nominally history student (based on how entertaining he was, there were some questions as to whether he was an actor or comedian) of the Roman Forum (or the 2% that's left of it). During this tour, he highlighted all parts of the Forum that we would have glossed right over, such as the toilets with their brushes (hint: the brushes weren't for cleaning the toilets), or the reason that no Roman statues have hair on their arms or legs. Trust me, it would be naive to assume that it was difficult to carve arm hair onto statues ;-) Supposedly the ancient Romans would bathe up to three times per day by rubbing themselves with olive oil, and then patting themselves with sand, and then scraping it off with a thin bronze tool, which happened to rub off the many Roman hairs. I bet they smelled marvelous afterwards.
This guide was so entertaining we decided we would try to hire him for the Vatican tour. Unfortunately, ancient Roman fate decided that we would be unable to find him the next morning and end up sitting in a line for the Vatican museum to open for 1.5 hours talking politics to some Israelis. I must have done tolerably, because they invited me to Israel.
Here is where I will become brief, and let you read between the lines. Here are some to help get you warmed up:
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
_____________________________
For the mathematical among you, there is something special about those lines, can you guess? I might bestow my bongo point upon you (except if it's bongo, because he can't get his own points back).
Highlights:
- The majority of ancient Roman marble (and works of art) is in the Vatican
- The St Peter's Basilica is the most impressive (and thus expensive) church I have EVER seen, of any religion. It includes giant frescoes that cover it's 6 acre interior, which upon closer inspection just happen to be mosaiks of tiny little colored tiles. I wonder with whose money they paid for that?
- The Vatican must have the largest loom ever made to make some of the largest tapestries ever made.
- Does jewel encrusting a bible make it more holy?
- At 13€ per person entrance (present), and with 4,267,014 visitors in 2006, the Vatican museum makes around $83 Million CAD per year. Holy...
Dan.
Jun 13, 2007
The Cheese Stands Alone
Coming to you fresh off a 10 hour train ride to Rome! Cheese doesn't travel well on trains; we left about 2 pounds of sweaty parmesan leftovers in the train station in hopes of a mouse finding it.
Sicilia was awesome... we stayed in two small Sicilian towns: Brolo and Acireale. We saw a HUGE live volcano, we laughed, Dan cried, we frolicked among lemon groves, we ate sea urchin, we had a lot of raisens and pine nuts in things, we speculated about the mafia status of swanky Italian men, BUT we had no internet access we could hog up for long enough to upload the photo evidense. new pictures will be up when we can put them up! and a better post to follow as well.
until then, we are in Rome and have some apparently gongfoolery to attend to!
When in Rome (had to say it!)
Ambrrra
Sicilia was awesome... we stayed in two small Sicilian towns: Brolo and Acireale. We saw a HUGE live volcano, we laughed, Dan cried, we frolicked among lemon groves, we ate sea urchin, we had a lot of raisens and pine nuts in things, we speculated about the mafia status of swanky Italian men, BUT we had no internet access we could hog up for long enough to upload the photo evidense. new pictures will be up when we can put them up! and a better post to follow as well.
until then, we are in Rome and have some apparently gongfoolery to attend to!
When in Rome (had to say it!)
Ambrrra
Jun 6, 2007
Poo in a toilet
Greek is surprisingly intuitive. Take the title for example. One of the most useful phrases in any language, is "Where is the bathroom". Well, in Greek, it is pu ine toillette, which is pronounced "poo in a toilet". How intuitive!
On the same digestive tract that we're on, I'd like to highlight some of great foods we had. I know that many of you are probably drooling just waiting to hear about them. In particular, Karin has been especially demanding to hear of all the tasty foods we've been eating, so I will spend a great deal of time on these tasty treats!
If you recall the photo of Sketchy McSketcherson (see our flickr page, and keep clicking NEXT at the bottom of the page until you see his photo), we had an excellent meal there.
On the same digestive tract that we're on, I'd like to highlight some of great foods we had. I know that many of you are probably drooling just waiting to hear about them. In particular, Karin has been especially demanding to hear of all the tasty foods we've been eating, so I will spend a great deal of time on these tasty treats!
If you recall the photo of Sketchy McSketcherson (see our flickr page, and keep clicking NEXT at the bottom of the page until you see his photo), we had an excellent meal there.
- Greek salad with exceptional feta (they put a chunk of it on top of the salad).
- Mussel saganaki, with another tasty cheese (sorry don't know the name of it).
- Taramosalata (fish egg puree, kind of like humous).
- Dolmades, served warm, with a hint of ouzo or fennel.
- Octopus in olive oil and vinegar (Amber loved them, the first time she's liked octopus).
- Tasty fresh bread to sop up all the sauces of the aforementioned treats.
- ALFA beer (another Greek beer). Lager, better that Bud (obviously), but not as great as homebrew.
However, the best foods in Naxos (not in Athens) were agreed upon by all:
- Greek salad with young feta (a spreadable chevre-like cheese).
- Greek/Arugula salad, with local Ximo...something cheese. It had a light dressing.
- Rooster in tomato sauce (Dan & Eric's first bite of cock, pardon me). It was flavourful like only stewing hens could be. Much better that crappy chicken you buy in the supermarket.
- Augergine with cheese (again, that local Ximo...something cheese), very tasty. Eggplants are something of a specialty here, or at least it happened to be eggplant season.
- Gyros from "Moustache's: Fresh is Better" (Dan's particular fav despite having fries snuck in them). Most touristy places have french fries, some sort of unfortunate British influence.
- Aforementioned octopus from Sketchy's.
- Aforementioned dolmades from Sketchy's. His actual restaurant was called "Cafe Ouzeri Limaiaki" (my rough transcription from Greek to Roman alphabet).
And of course, there was a ranking of all of our favorite Ouzos. In usual scientific styling (not to be confused with the European Styling that usually involves some sort of ridiculous yellow sunglasses, perhaps with perfectly round lenses, and incomprehensible Engrish on the back of jeans that might say "Nobody's perfect except the Captain"), we decided to rank them on a scale from 7-11.
- Ouzo Pliomariou - 10/10.5/10 Better aroma, a little bit of an alcoholy taste.
- Ouzo Tsantali - 10/10/10 Excllent overall.
- Ouzo Naxiotiko - 8/8/7 Worse smell, worse taste, not as sweet, more bite.
- Ouzo D'Artemis - 8.5/9/9 Nice aftertaste, but that was about it.
- Ouzo Mini (worse than Pliomariou, not ranked because we had already drank it all by the time we got the ingenious idea to rank them)
Anyways, from the classy pu ine toillette in Greece, we will have dov'e [in a] toillette in Sicily (that's Greek for the same).
Dan.
Back in Athens
We're back in Athens now. We'll be enjoying the beautiful scenery and local music and tasty foods tonight, in addition to the sketchy neighborhood. The sketchier the neighborhood, the better deals to be had.
On our boat ride over, we thoroughly enjoyed two bottles of Ouzo and a bottle of red wine. We are now all proficient in Italian, or at the very least, drunken Italian.
Dan et al.
On our boat ride over, we thoroughly enjoyed two bottles of Ouzo and a bottle of red wine. We are now all proficient in Italian, or at the very least, drunken Italian.
Dan et al.
Jun 4, 2007
More Pictures Finally!
Here's the address to our new photo site. We will likely be using both picasa and flickr since some internet cafes support one and not the other, etc...
The latest pics:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/aroundtheglobein100days/
Previous pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/round.the.globe.in.100.days/
Dan.
Footloose and Monkey-free
Well, after being down with an evil Grecian cold for 3 days, I'm now having a awesome time on ol' Naxos. The tomatos are amazing!
It really is a lot easier to get things done in Greece; the sketchiness has decreased significantly since leaving Turkey. This does take away some of the sense of adventure, but I find it much easier to just RELAX i.e. just kick back with a couple of tomatoes and a bottle of wine without fear of whether that man over there will think I'm a prostitute for wearing a skirt. Dan, Mom and Eric are more into Ouzo- they have it with breakfast and dinner most days.
We rented 2 scooters and 4 Dumb and Dumber Helmets on our second day here- this really is the best way to see the island, which get more interesting with every scoot. Olive and citrus are plentiful in the interior, and there is a tonne of amazing beaches. We've certainly met some characters, which will be described in the picture captions. Dan should have the new photos up on our flickr site today some time.
sorry so short but I'm off to the beach!
Amber full of tomatoes
It really is a lot easier to get things done in Greece; the sketchiness has decreased significantly since leaving Turkey. This does take away some of the sense of adventure, but I find it much easier to just RELAX i.e. just kick back with a couple of tomatoes and a bottle of wine without fear of whether that man over there will think I'm a prostitute for wearing a skirt. Dan, Mom and Eric are more into Ouzo- they have it with breakfast and dinner most days.
We rented 2 scooters and 4 Dumb and Dumber Helmets on our second day here- this really is the best way to see the island, which get more interesting with every scoot. Olive and citrus are plentiful in the interior, and there is a tonne of amazing beaches. We've certainly met some characters, which will be described in the picture captions. Dan should have the new photos up on our flickr site today some time.
sorry so short but I'm off to the beach!
Amber full of tomatoes
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