Cindy and our Australian friends Daisy and Lotus spent a day in Pompeii before we parted ways and Cindy and I came to Florence. The city of Pompeii was absolutely fascinating, and I'm really glad we made it there, even if it was only for a few hours. The Roman history we learned only scratched the surface, but it was fun to learn about ancient streets and crosswalks, the water and sewer system, and brothels way back in the day. It's so amazing that the Roman civilization was so advanced so long ago and some of the countries we've visited on this trip still don't even have sanitation systems that come close to competing with the systems that had been invented thousands of years ago.
We made it back to Naples just in time to catch a train to Rome in the hopes of leaving Rome for Florence the same day. Unfortunately, we read our train tickets incorrectly and had booked our ticket from Rome to Florence from a different station and we ended up spending the night on Platform 1 of the Rome train station before catching a 6am train to Florence the next morning. Luckily, our tickets were still valid and we didn't have to pay for the train twice.
The last four days we've spent hanging out in Florence. My friend Corinne (Carina) has spent the last three weeks here in a flat overlooking la Piazza Santa Croce, so we spent quite a bit of time visiting "her people" and eating at some amazing restaurants while we caught up on what's been going on in Seattle and celebrating Carina's 30th birthday. Of course, four days isn't enough to see all that we wanted to see, but I got a good taste for the city (piazzas, paninis, pizzas, gelato, chianti . . .) and know that I want to come back.
We're leaving for Bologna in an hour or so. I've heard amazing things about the city - and about Parma, our next destination. I'm really looking forward to taking a train through more of the Tuscan countryside before we go north to Verona, the city Romeo and Juliet is set in.
That's all for now!
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
The weather is not cooperating . . .
Cindy and I road tripped from Split to Dubrovnik in our 2007 Ford Focus on August 12. We drove along the Dalmatian Coast for about 9 hours, stopping in several small towns and taking pictures (of course) everywhere we went and could find a place to snap a shot. We had an excellent lunch - I had a chicken salad and Cindy had black risotto, a Croatian delicacy - and arrived in Dubrovnik with abotu 10 minutes to spare before we were late turning in our rental car.
On the walk from the rental car place to the bus station, where we were assured we'd find a woman who was trying to rent out a room, we ran into a woman who was trying to do just that, and managed to score a nice place to stay in a home that had a covered seating area and a kitchen we could make use of. The kitchen came complete with Tony, our new Australian-Croatian friend who had been staying in Dubrovnik for 10 days and let us in on the ins and outs of the city before inviting us to join him for a night out at a wine bar.
We woke up early the next day and went to the "local beach" on the north side of Dubrovnik's old city to get a tan. Unfortunately, the wind was pretty cold and I spent most of the day curled up in my sarong trying to stay warm, and didn't get much of a tan. By the time both of us were frozen out, Cindy and I were on our way to find some gelato, and met two more Australians, Steve and Dan, who had also just arrived in Dubrovnik. While we were talking to them, Tony happened to walk by, and the ironic thing is that he didn't even notice Cindy or me. He recognized Steve from back home, and they proceeded to talk for about 5 minutes before Tony even realized we were there! : )
We made plans to go out that night, and Cindy, Steve, Dan, and I walked up to a watch tower that overlooks the Old City to take pictures and get orientated with the city before Steve and Dan did a tour of the Old City and Cindy and I checked out more of the town and bought food so we could take advantage of our kitchen. We met all three Aussies out that night and ended up eating pizza, then going to Fuego, the one club in all of Dubrovnik that was open since it's officially fall here and all the other bars were dead since it was freezing cold at night.
The next day, Cindy and I slept in, then went to the tourist beach, which was really busy since it was nice and sunny out. It's too bad we wasted what ended up being our only nice day in Dubrovnik by sleeping in, but . . . we got some more photos of the old city and took advantage of what sun we could.
On September 19, we woke up to an overcast day, and spent most of the day doing tourist stuff - walking the city walls, checking out churches, etc. Although we were disappointed in the weather, we took as much advantage as we could of the sites.
Disappointingly, the following morning we woke up to a beautiful blue, sunny sky that turned overcast as soon as we got to the beach. Luckily, we had booked a 4:00ferry from Dubrovnik to Bari, Italy, that afternoon, so we spent the day once again walking around the old town, scoring free wine for lunch and free gelato from our favorite gelateria. All in all, it was a better day than we anticipated after being cold at the beach for an hour. : )
On the ferry to Bari we met two Australian girls (what is it with meeting Aussies in Croatia? :) who we decided to travel with for the next several days, and walked around with them for about an hour looking for a place to stay before meeting an Italian mother and daughter (Thank God Cindy knows Italian!) who called several hostels and pensiones for us and soon learned that there was an expo going on in town and there was not a room available ANYWHERE. Luckily, the daughter, Lilly, hooked us up with a place to stay - the floor of her boyfriend's apartment!!! We slept on hard, cold, marble floor before Lilly woke us up this morning and she and her mom drove us to the train station. Luckily, Lilly's mom showed up with not just her car, but a giant thermos full of coffee and biscotti. I think we all could've kissed her! : )
We arrived at the train station this morning just 5 minutes before the train to Naples departed, so we bought tickets and hopped aboard and were off to Naples. We arrived here a few hours ago, and are going to check out Pompeii tomorrow. If all works out, we will catch a train for Florence tomorrow evening, where we'll meet up with my friend Corinne, who rented a flat and is staying there for a few weeks. From there we'll go to Bologna or Venice, then to Verona and Milan. Hopefully all will work out and we'll be able to see as much of the country as possible before I leave on Oct. 1. We'll see, though. There's so much to see and so little time! Good thing I have a few days at the end of my trip to spend time in Rome and anywhere else I'll miss this time around!
Ciao!
On the walk from the rental car place to the bus station, where we were assured we'd find a woman who was trying to rent out a room, we ran into a woman who was trying to do just that, and managed to score a nice place to stay in a home that had a covered seating area and a kitchen we could make use of. The kitchen came complete with Tony, our new Australian-Croatian friend who had been staying in Dubrovnik for 10 days and let us in on the ins and outs of the city before inviting us to join him for a night out at a wine bar.
We woke up early the next day and went to the "local beach" on the north side of Dubrovnik's old city to get a tan. Unfortunately, the wind was pretty cold and I spent most of the day curled up in my sarong trying to stay warm, and didn't get much of a tan. By the time both of us were frozen out, Cindy and I were on our way to find some gelato, and met two more Australians, Steve and Dan, who had also just arrived in Dubrovnik. While we were talking to them, Tony happened to walk by, and the ironic thing is that he didn't even notice Cindy or me. He recognized Steve from back home, and they proceeded to talk for about 5 minutes before Tony even realized we were there! : )
We made plans to go out that night, and Cindy, Steve, Dan, and I walked up to a watch tower that overlooks the Old City to take pictures and get orientated with the city before Steve and Dan did a tour of the Old City and Cindy and I checked out more of the town and bought food so we could take advantage of our kitchen. We met all three Aussies out that night and ended up eating pizza, then going to Fuego, the one club in all of Dubrovnik that was open since it's officially fall here and all the other bars were dead since it was freezing cold at night.
The next day, Cindy and I slept in, then went to the tourist beach, which was really busy since it was nice and sunny out. It's too bad we wasted what ended up being our only nice day in Dubrovnik by sleeping in, but . . . we got some more photos of the old city and took advantage of what sun we could.
On September 19, we woke up to an overcast day, and spent most of the day doing tourist stuff - walking the city walls, checking out churches, etc. Although we were disappointed in the weather, we took as much advantage as we could of the sites.
Disappointingly, the following morning we woke up to a beautiful blue, sunny sky that turned overcast as soon as we got to the beach. Luckily, we had booked a 4:00ferry from Dubrovnik to Bari, Italy, that afternoon, so we spent the day once again walking around the old town, scoring free wine for lunch and free gelato from our favorite gelateria. All in all, it was a better day than we anticipated after being cold at the beach for an hour. : )
On the ferry to Bari we met two Australian girls (what is it with meeting Aussies in Croatia? :) who we decided to travel with for the next several days, and walked around with them for about an hour looking for a place to stay before meeting an Italian mother and daughter (Thank God Cindy knows Italian!) who called several hostels and pensiones for us and soon learned that there was an expo going on in town and there was not a room available ANYWHERE. Luckily, the daughter, Lilly, hooked us up with a place to stay - the floor of her boyfriend's apartment!!! We slept on hard, cold, marble floor before Lilly woke us up this morning and she and her mom drove us to the train station. Luckily, Lilly's mom showed up with not just her car, but a giant thermos full of coffee and biscotti. I think we all could've kissed her! : )
We arrived at the train station this morning just 5 minutes before the train to Naples departed, so we bought tickets and hopped aboard and were off to Naples. We arrived here a few hours ago, and are going to check out Pompeii tomorrow. If all works out, we will catch a train for Florence tomorrow evening, where we'll meet up with my friend Corinne, who rented a flat and is staying there for a few weeks. From there we'll go to Bologna or Venice, then to Verona and Milan. Hopefully all will work out and we'll be able to see as much of the country as possible before I leave on Oct. 1. We'll see, though. There's so much to see and so little time! Good thing I have a few days at the end of my trip to spend time in Rome and anywhere else I'll miss this time around!
Ciao!
Monday, September 15, 2008
The Dalmatian Coast!
We arrived in Croatia on September 9, and spent an afternoon in Zagreb, the capital city, before moving on to Split, where we are now. Split is on the Dalmatian Coast, and we were hoping to get a tan here before leaving for Italy, but the weather so far hasn't cooperated. Yesterday we spent all our time in coffee shops escaping torrential downpours and debating whether to rent a car and go to Dubrovnik today or tomorrow. It looks like we'll be leaving tomorrow.
That's all for now. Happy birthday to Lindsey tomorrow!!!
That's all for now. Happy birthday to Lindsey tomorrow!!!
Monday, September 08, 2008
Still alive!
Update: We're alive and well in Delhi, with only a few hours to go before we leave for Istanbul for 3 days. Unless we come down with something in the next few days, we may have escaped India with only a few minor stomach irritations, mostly from eating too many dried apricots. My doctor will be happy to know that I didn't have to take any Cipro - yet. I'll update my blog with a post on all 5 weeks in India ASAP - who knows when that will be!
Hopefully everyone back home is well and all the teachers are surviving the start of school! Happy birthday to all those August and September birthday people I missed! I thought of you on your birthday even if I didn't mention it here!!!
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