Romping through Europe

one last post i owe

2010-06-23T11:06:00.000-07:00

i owe a last post to close out this travel blog, i promise i will get to it.

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there's no circus at Picadilly

2009-06-11T20:44:00.000-07:00

* i also wanted to name this entry "Tea Party For One" or boringly "London day 3 - sat 5-30-09"*

Saturday, i am exhausted from walking so much in Italy and London. i decided to go down to Picadilly Circus tube stop, where everyone and their mom seem to have a store front trying to sell me discount show tickets of all shades under the rainbow - and see if i can score some discount tickets to shows.

Of all the shows, Les Miz and Miss Saigon were my all time favorites. Miss Saigon because K and I watched it when we were 17, and the main character was 17 when she fell in love with the american soldier and sung her sad life story - and for some reason we felt a personal connection to that... we knew all the words to all the songs, so if ever Lea Salonga couldn't make the show, we were ready to step in. because it can happen that way, yo.

I recall a school trip to see Les Miserables - except because we got the group student tickets, we sat way back in the theatre, and as my bad memory recalls, i think there were no stadium-level seating, so the people were my pinky size from an arm's length. i knew and love the music, and we sung many of the songs officially and unofficially as part of Vocale Ensemble. (those were the days!)

so i was excited to see that Les Miz is playing in London, and apparently the longest running broadway show in London. i got a decent price and really wanted to see it so i got the matinee tickets.

trying to figure out what else to do in my day, i felt so drained that i decided to take myself to a 3rd broadway show in London and got tickets to We Will Rock You - which is a musical based on songs by Queen.

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Before Les Miz, i decided to finally get myself to Knightsbridge station and check out the famed Harrods department store. i took so many photos and it doesn't even describe 1/20 of the foodhalls! I'll post all the harrod's pics at the end.

i was going to sit down to have some authentic fish and chips at Harrod's foodhall... £19!!!! which isn't the craziest thing - was that i was willing to pay that much, but the seafood section was full and the servers were snobby (yes, yes, it's English afterall), so i decided to wander the rest of the store to forage for good food.

i figured if i were willing to pay £19 for fish and chips, then i should treat myself to a Big Girl luncheon, so i sat at the Veuve Clicquot champagne lounge for lunch.

the 2 girls next to me asked me to take their picture, so in return i asked them to take mine

slightly tipsy, i went to my Les Miz show...
a bit of a bummer, my seats were only 4th rows from the back on the 1st balcony. I had a good general view of the whole stage, but would have LOVED to sit closer...
wasteful still was that on both sides of the balcony first row (sides only) there were one person on the left and 2 people on the right - all other seats were empty.

towards the end of intermission, the guy on my left struck up a conversation... he's seen Les Miz a handful of times, his wife and daughter went shopping so he's here alone. He says the show is sooo different from various vantage points in the theatre.

i confessed that i'd been eyeing both sides of the 1st balcony row and kind of wish i was seeing the show from there instead. If i knew the tickets were available, I would've bought it, but the ticket counter i went to said my tickets were the best, so there you have it.

** In London, there are as many "discount show tickets" booths as there are Fisherman's Wharf booths selling you "San Francisco" fleece jackets (or for my Canadian readers, as many souvenir shops on Ste Catherine trying to sell you "Good Girls go to Heaven, Bad Girls go to Montreal" T-shirts - incidentally, in my opinion, bad girls COME from Montreal.. "bad" being the "good" and "fun" definition, of course - but perhaps that's another blog entry discussion to be had **

The guy next to me said he'd move down with me if i wanted, so i moved to the 1st row, and lost sight of him... turned out he squatted a seat right in the middle of the 1st balcony row (which were all sold sp when the original owners returned, he sheepishly came by but thought our farther seats were better and went back...

As for me, i sat at my new stage-right 1st row balcony seat, and got to really see the actors and actresses' faces, and even overlook the orchestra pit, saw how everything was cued... it was a lopsided view but i felt SO close to the actors, i saw their sweat!! i got to lean over the balcony, especially during the love songs - Les Miz is familiar like an old friend, i'm fighting the urge not to sing along, since I know almost every word... i didn't, afterall, pay for a ticket to drown out professional Broadway actors with my very non-professional voice.

Les Miz was comforting, tragic, romantic... My heroine isn't the obvious Cosette - who had a bad childhood but lucky in love). I prefer the tragic heroine Eponine, born unluckily into a bad family... she's clever, loyal, street-smart and foolishly in love. the most moving of all songs is Little Fall of Rain, which stole my heart.

after Les Miz, i stopped by Richoux to have Traditional Afternoon tea. it was good but i'm sure it wasn't as good as tea-ing at The Ritz. i didn't have much time so i'll settle for a solid tea party of 1.

in the evening, i watched We Will Rock You at a surprisingly un-airconditioned theatre. it is a very tongue in cheek (and often interlaced with comical editorial commentary about the music culture, past and present, mocking or genuine. Fun story, including sing-alongs and hand clapping... I will never hear We Are the Champions or We Will Rock you the same way. As the encore, the main thread of the story, Bohemian Rhapsody...

the musicians were awesome, the story is intertwined with suble and not-so-suble lyrical references as normal storyline.

off topic, the house wine that they sold at the theatre - and they encourage fun times and sold alcohol of all kinds so people will be able to have a relaxed atmosphere at the show - the house wine was awful. i had 4 day old wine that turned slightly sour better than this wine.

a funny line from the musical:

"I'm both a roadie now, and a groupie... so i get to have sex with myself - ha! hmmm, not much change there..." - main hippie guy.

here are some food pictures from Harrod's Foodhalls (these are maybe 1/20th of all there is at the foodhalls!)

London day 2 - fri 5-29-09

2009-06-08T21:48:00.000-07:00

i woke up determined to see a little bit of history in London, so from the variety of choices, i picked up the London Walk tour for Westminster Abbey...

part of the tour included seeing the Changing of the Guards... the surprising (nicely) thing was we got to see them as they marched on the ROAD towards Buckingham Palace (most people stand in line at the Palace gates and get to see the person's head ahead of them...) We saw both the foot guards and the horse guards. Instead of swords they had guns, so even though the guard changes was traditional fanfare, they are real soliders and up to date with the latest gears.

We took a scenic route to Westminster Abbey and heard many a great story on the way...

since i've been bumbling through most of my trip unplanned and unresearched, i had never realized what is here at Westminster Abbey... but so many people are buried here amongst the royalty. Newton, Darwin, Faraday and Kelvin, to name a few. Chaucer, Bryon, Tennyson, Robert Browning, to name another few in the Poet's Corner. Then Queen Elizabeth and her sister Bloody Mary. if you ask me, it's a real melange of various cultures, religions, cross sections of the famous and infamous.

by the way, the Guiness family is still rich enough to have donated many Waterford Crystal chandelier to the Abbey.

on the alter of the Westmisnter Abbey, there's the coronation floor where the coronation chair is placed in the middle for the coronation of kings and queens. the floor there is mosaic and beautiful, and has a picture of the universe - the coronation chair is supposed to be placed at the center of the universe - which in the mosiac, is earth. because we all know the center of the universe is the earth right?! Hello Galileo.

"But there is that within me which shall tire, torture and time and breadth when i expire" ~Lord Bryon.

"Is all in life, then, but a dream?" - Lewis Carroll.

What's most interesting and touching is the tomb for the Unname Soldier, that represents some 60,000 men who died during WWI walking into lines of machine gun fire. This is the only tomb in the Abbey where no one can walk on - the coronation, marriages and royalties, all happen stepping around this tomb.

I'm tired from all the walking, walking everywhere!
Ok, i see the Big Ben in the background. Here's another self-portrait trying to get both my face and Big Ben in the picture.

En route towards Traflagar Square, i found this cool memorial.

I pass by some more guards with tall tall boots (un-bendable) and on horseback.

I passed by Obika which is this Mozarella bar that TW had wanted to take me to for brunch in Milan, but we never had a chance... it's a sign! (and a sign for lunch menu!) so i decided to have lunch there...

I got the mozarella and porchuitto salad

dessert of the day was heavenly - pineapple carpacio!!! thinly sliced pineapple with a super light syrup that had vanilla beans in it, strawberries...

one of the things on my personal list is to visit 2nd hand bookstores, so i spent 2 hours on this street with the bookstores (each had its own specialization)...
halfway through, in a Children's 2nd hand bookstore, i found a Dalek that was used inn filming of 1972 Doctor Who!!! I asked the nice owner if i can take a picture, he looked up surprised that i know what the heck this was, and said of course.

so after browsing the book stores, i went back to my hotel to take a break before my friday evening date with myself at the show Wicked!!!

in the underground, i saw this cute poster

I also saw this amusing poster - who knew Jerry Springer was in Chicago?

..........

i decided to get semi-dressed up for Wicked. with all the tourists in town, who knows what's the proper attire anymore...

i LOVED the show... it's so much about friendship, then love, and mostly about pushing boundaries beyond the labels society give you or how people perceive you. I will stop with the editorial commentary, but needless to say, i had a fun time, LOVED the story, loved the singing and performance...

i came out of the theatre on a high high note - i think Wicked just added a spot on my favorite musicals list!!
i had the stupid smile on my face, getting ready to walk back to my hotel.
on the side street, i saw 5 other girls giggling near... so i took a look. the door said "Stage Door" so i asked one of them, are you waiting for the Wicked Cast? and they were. it was unbelievable that there's not mobs of fans clammering out here waiting for the cast!!! So i decided to give it a few minutes, what else have i got to do anyway?!

within 10 minutes the cast came out! talk about superman quick in changing!!!
Oliver Tompset who plays Fiyero came out, and i didn't realize he's so gorgerous in real life until up close and personal (you know, stage shows always put so much makeup on you can't tell what is Maybelline and what is nature's blessings!)
my jaws dropped... he's hunky GORGEROUS! our kids would look equally gorgerous.

Here's Dianne Pilkington who played Glinda the good - she was too quick, i only got a picture of her instead of with her...

and me with Natalie Anderson, who played the role of Nessarose - Alphaba's sister

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i'm high on a kite at that moment... loved the show, such an unexpected surprise to have almost run right into the cast afterwards and they were nice enough to take a picture with me! plus there's no big crowds and lineups to do so!

when i got back to my hotel, i decided to have a drink at the hotel bar in the lobby. On the Alleyway walking tour, some woman ordered a "Pimms and Lemonade" so i tried to order that... but the bar was out of Pimms (which is surprising for a british pub). i asked the bartender what's a typical british drink, and he in turned asked the few people who were sitting in the bar area... and an older British couple sitting at the table replied "Gin and Tonic" merrily, so that's what i ordered. they emphasized: "With lemon and ice, dearie!" - yes sir.

the couple turned out to be very entertaining (and halfway tipsy) - as we exchange stories on the London sights we've seen and visited, the history, and eventually, i seek out their advice about the etiquettes of tipping in London ("we're British, we almost never tip. unless i am exceptionally happy with your service, then i might give you something" was the advice i got. and they both thought i was rudely ripped off by the Black Cab driver giving himself £5 tip.) On a side note, the gin and tonic was VERY good - surprisingly light. I've only had a gin and tonic once before but the alcohol was so strong that i felt like i was inhaling just rubbing alcohol and never finished the drink. And the man recommended that i ask for the tonic water on the side so they'd give you a bottle. add half to your drink, and then on your second round, you only need to order a shot of gin to add to the remainder of your tonic water, to save a few bucks.

the night turned out to be adventurous and memorable, unpredictable and lovely.

London day 1 - thurs 5-28-09

2009-06-06T10:45:00.000-07:00

Milano airport security line is like Great America ride lines (La Ronde, for my Montreal readers) - twist and turns to deter your thoughts from how long the line is if everyone stood directly behind each other.

The custom official guy was cute and gave me a nice smile after seeing my passport - where were they when i spent the 4 weeks in their country!!!

the plane landed at Heathrow airport, and as it lands, i thought i saw the words "TOILET" big on a building near the airport.
but i think it said:

anyways, with 2 rolling luggages, and remembering how far the terminals were to the tram, and possibly all the levels of stairs and escalators i might have to encounter in the London underground (and not having taken it yet so unsure of what to expect) - i decided to bite the bullet and take a cab to my hotel. the line for Black Cab was convienently right outside - it's like a supped up mini van except there's only 2 seats in the back and plenty of leg room.

upon arriving, the driver took my bags to the hotel front door. the meter said £54, i handed him £60 expecting change ( i was going to tip £2 or £3 remembering the conversion at some point was about 1 £ to 2 $ or some such), and he had the audacity to say 'yes that's right, thank you. the meter was £55 and the rest is tip'
and he walked away!

how very rude, i think he over tipped himself, and i am dazed and confused since everything in Italy was included in the bill so i came from a country where really tipping was already included.

***side note, even though i didn't speak italian save to ask for directions and order food, the sound of italian is strangely familiar. now in london, even though i am hearing lots of english language, it sounds sooo foreign to me. not to mention that in London, people speak ALL sorts of language on the street, it's really not like being in an english speaking country, but rather, like any-language-speaking country. ***

-------- Apparitions, Alleyways and Ales -------------

so my friend at work found this great source call London Walks which is a group that offer very interesting guided walking tours - you don't need to book ahead of time, and the meeting location is always at a tube station. This gives great flexibility so you're not locked down to anything should last minute schedule changes, and i think London is such a walkable city, so i can get some exercise too.

my first tour was the Apparitions, Alleyways and Ales tour... London ghost stories... haunted mansions, theatre, haunting dogs.. the stories were entertaining, the guide was good, but i wasn't sure i believed all of them..

haunted alleyway near the stage door of a theatre:

Tom Cribb pub - Tom Cribb was a famous English bare-knuckle boxer and apparently haunts his pub to this day

this poor doggy died and was haunting a certain cross section of town at 8am, 2pm or 8pm at night, times when his owner used to walk him in life. his tombstone existed but was knocked over and grass grew over it. after many reports of car accidents caused by sightings of a dog run out into the street, investigators found the tombstone and put it back up - after then, no more doggy hauntings.

St James park - London Eye in the background. St James park is said to be super haunted due to all the bodies buried here, including a whole lot from a nearby monastery.

Sting (the singer)'s house - not haunted. When the tour end, the guide said "this way to the tube station, this way to the pub for a good drink, and around the corner is Sting's house, he lives here" we saw his butler peering through the windows like good stalkers that we are.

On my tour, i met this really cool woman named Anne who worked for Universit of Minnesota (we exchanged information but i reset my phone contacts accidentally so now i'll never be in touch with her) - who was here for work but stayed a few extra days... we really had fun, so the tour guide MENTIONED 'you can't talk about Haunted London without talking about 50 Barclay Square...' we knew we had to go there.

after the tour ended, Anne and i adventurously found our way to 50 Barclay Square (walking through Green Park gave us the willies, for no reason. all of a sudden we both felt a hush of unease... i took out my trusty mini flash light and we hurried and joked loudly to ease tension and half ran through the park)...

eventually we found the place... it's in a decently busy area of town even at night, though i did feel 'weird' when we walked by. A second hand bookstore is located on the first floor of this building, but the top floor middle room with the four poster bed is where a lot of strange things takes place... so many stories that the 'hauntings' weren't even associated with a single story. It is said to be confirmed that the bookstore has policies, even to this day, that there can never be just 1 person manning the store, and also that top floor middle room is always locked and no one is allowed to ever enter.

Anne and i looked at it, then ran across the street so we can take a picture of it from far. we both snapped our digital camera..
then my camera does a split second preview of the last picture, and i saw a flash of white in the photo, that was not in Anne's photo. i kind of freaked out a bit, i turned to Anne and asked if she saw the white in the photo too and she did. we quietly squealed like school girls in light horror. i half wanted to leave my camera on the pavement and walk away...

then i started noticing that cars were curving as they came by us (when we tried to cross the street). i told Anne my theory that i happened upon a set of car headlights that is driving towards the house, and with my camera flash i managed to capture the light reflecting off the window glass.

we both 'bought' this explanation and felt a lot less spooked (and in return a lot more stupid).

you tell me if you believe there's something supernatural here:

so ends the first half day in London. heart pounding excitement, mostly self induced i think.

Last Supper at Milan

2009-06-05T08:35:00.000-07:00

time flies, it barely hit me that my last day in Italy was here...

i lunched with TH, then had lemon granita again from Grom...
then i shopped a bit and walked around my 'old stomping ground' in Milan - by now i OWN Milan in terms of knowing how to get places and where things are around downtown!
of course, i had to go to Peck and get some lemon and pistacchio macarons. SOOOO delish.

since i've done the whole shopping thing (Florence and Venice were out of control!), i just walked around and enjoyed Milano on the last day.

the big department store La Rinascente is literally across from the Duomo, so i decided to have a snacky-drink there late afternoon.

I didn't even realize it was Apertivo time! I ordered Creme Royal - sparkling wine Brut Bellavista, Creme de Cassis and Guava juice. it was yummy

what was even yummier was that since it's appertivo time, they brough me free snacks!! rolled buffalo mozarella cheese with rucola and speck, sliced roast beef wrapped around asparagus, cucumber dip served with a slice of toast point and a cucumber slice, and tomato sauce pasta that is soooo flavorful:

and the honest to goodness view was amazing, i see the top section of the Duomo RIGHT across from my seat, in the beautiful near twilight, afternoon breeze still helping creat the perfect scenary

having appertivo here was a gem of an accidental discovery - i truly recommend if you're ever in Milan, this is a must do.

So now Amy is a bit buzzed (yes, still a light drunk) - and what next? of course, the last day isn't complete without a 2nd Grom run. i had to go with my favorite flavors: Crema Di Grom, and Nocciola...

by the time i stumbled back to the house, i was pretty satisfied with my day. TH and TW asks: 'Amy, do you want to go see your italian chef "boyfriend" for your last meal?' and there was only 1 answer: 'give me 10 minutes to put on my face!'

we walked into ZeroDuo (zeee-ro-due-eh) and the chef's table was open - i guess people aren't as crazed foodie fan as me !! - when we sat down we saw my chef plating something delicious looking...
we tried to find it on the menu and guessed at it... upon asking the waitress, she came back to tell us what they made was a test sample for next month's menu, it wasn't yet on the current menu yet - but they would be happy to make it for us if we wanted... so we ordered it:

Layer of fried eggs then aspersgus, chopped red onions with lemon zest, then beef tartare (ever so slightly cooked by the heated rings). Topped with more aspersgus and thyme and basil!!! it was delicious and rich and smooth and just perfect balance.

of course this being my last night i was unabashedly gawking the whole night at the kitchen. (and yes in retrospect the glass is TWO WAY amy, they can see you gawk at them the whole night). TH and TW were egging me on to talk to the chef since during slower moments he would come out of the kitchen to his friends at the table behind me to chat. i was mortified and embarassed (and slightly buzzed from the 2 glasses of sparkling red wine from dinner) - and kept thinking, this is how it starts, the Cougar life, of older woman embarassingly flauntingly hitting on the younger 'staff' - waiters, gardener, repairmen. Goodness gracious, let me not be one of those...!

On the chef's 2nd visit to his friend's table, i finally turned (after much much encouragement and peer pressure from TH and TW) to the chef and asked "Photo per favore?" (in my mind i think i said 'per favore' but i've noticed that in my attempts to speak italian i've often forgotten and left out 'per favore' and 'grazie' in the excitement that i've gotten the other words right...)

at first he was asking if we wanted HIM to take a photo of the 3 of us, but i handed the camera to TH and said no, and pointed me and him. he leans over for the photo:

after that, he turned to me, pointed to his cheek and said "bacio??"
so i gave him the kiss on the cheek.

by this time i was blushing like mad and about to DIE of embarassment, but TH and TW insists this makes good travel stories...

after that, we walked around near the Versace Teatro area (lots of good bars)

and had more drinks...

we rounded back to the bar where i had my first drink in Milan that first evening - thus coming back full circle symbolically and physically for my trip. we also went to a spanish place for 2nd drinks of which i had none and gave it to TH because by then i was happily tipsy. i think we all were...

Ciao Milano...

Lago Como

2009-06-05T08:05:00.000-07:00

i had 2 last days in Milano and since the first week i've seen almost all in Milano that i've wanted to see, i decided to do a day-trip somewhere just because i had extra 'days' left on my EuRail pass.

after stopping over at Parma and smelling the fresh 'farm' smell, i was ok without having to visit there. Torino was another possibility, but in the end i chose Lake Como because i loved my visit with Nat at Lago Maggiore, love all the nature and water and canels from Amsterdam, so I wanted a scenic quiet day at the lake...

i was so tired i got up quite late, so had lunch in Milan (10 euros fixed price no service charge)

risotto with shrimp and asparagus - i need to learn this risotto technique, the risotto is creamy without adding just cream in it, full of flavor and perfectly al dente.

Secondi was boccocino al balsamico with peppered spinach on the side - this was fabulous - the balsamic add just a sliver of aciditiy to balance out the meat, making this dish not just hefty and heavy, but very perfectly balanced.

I love GROM, so in case i don't get to have many more, i tried to Sicilian Granita there, coffee flavor

the coffee was intense and a bit dark for my taste but i ate it all. i loved the lemon granita, the flavor was intense and tart and sweet and just sooo refreshing.

then i hopped on a train to Como... not knowing the area, i bought a map for Como at the train station - it was 7.50 euros! for a mere paper map! but of course it would cost that much AT the station. In any case, i figured i was walking around Como and the only thing i need in any new city is a map and a bottle of water.

*in fact by this time i do enjoy the challenge of getting to know a new city given a city map and trying to find my way around - it's urban orienteering!*

First things first, i walked to the edge of the lake that overlooks Lake Como... there were grass areas where people were suntanning, and park bench seats as well as the ledge. Some random guy was actually swimming in the water... and a group of firemen were congregating and socializing down the path from me. I sat on the ledge and watched and just felt the feeling of the breeze, the water, hearing the sounds of the lake, splashes of the waves as it crashed to the shore..... even though i was on the edge of the lake, the breeze was comfortably warm.

of course by this part of my trip i've begun to 'master' self portraits with my camera (by butchering the picture, where most of it is of me and a sliver of it is of the beautiful background i was trying to make sure i got into the picture)

i wandered towards the 'downtown' or shopping area of Como, there were some tourists there but nothing like in Rome. a drop or two of rain hung in the air and threaten to become a rain storm - great, just my luck, since i stubbornly refused to carry the umbrella i broke down and had to buy in Milan during a rainstorm.

as i was weaving through the streets (Armani stores and such), out of the corner of my eyes, i saw and heard this african walking street vendor shout at me.
"filipina!! filipina!! bella bella filipina!" and he actually pointed at me. He was loud too, and both embarassed and flustered, I tried to continue walking the other direction. I have no idea what he was trying to sell but he followed me and came up close to me when i stopped at a display window (where there were a handful of other people). He continued to shout "bella filipina!" at me, so i picked up my pace and walked down a busier street quickly. I continued until i saw a shoe store with a LOT of women oooh-ing and aaah-ing in the window and hid myself among them. I saw the guy continue to walk down the street another 5-6 stores, then i walked quickly backwards and ducked into a store on a side street to avoid him.

knowing it's one of my last days in italy, i hopped into a Gelateria to have more gelato. (yes, more!)
the flavor just chose me when i saw the Smurf (Puffo) flavor, i had to try it

no, it didn't taste mushroomy, or even grassy. i think it tasted just sugary. maybe puffo was marshmallow flavor - but it was smurf blue!

i wandered around Como area, not much to do. on my walk back towards the train station, this guy (early 50s) was walking his dog, and i smiled at him and his dog as he mentioned something in italian... pretty soon, we were having a conversation in italian (me: bene, si... si... ) until at a certain point i had no idea what he was saying, then i started in my english, and combined with my french words (he asked me what i do at work in italian, i replied in edited-french 'informatique?' and he would say it in italian 'informatica! ah!')
so that was an interesting conversation...

Como was beautiful, don't get me wrong - hey it's good enough for Sir George Cloney (who, by the way, in unabashedly unashamed and starring into many Nespresso commercials on tv). Perhaps because i saw Lago Maggiore first, and perhaps because of Nat, i saw it from a non-tourist point of view, but my favorite is still Lago Maggiore and the Lugano area....

Amsterdam

2009-06-04T21:43:00.001-07:00

i got to Amsterdam insanely early - 6am flight from Milano (was at airport by 4:30am) so i arrived into Amsterdam at 8am. dazed and confused (and feeling stupid for booking such an insane flight), i was thankfully able to check into my hotel early.

as i wander out to explore the city (around 10am by now), on a random street, this guy (shaved head), checked me out as we walked along the same side of the street, then he aggressively made eye contact with me, then he started pacing me stride by stride on the street.
I felt slightly intimidated since i was still dazed from being up since 4am, so i stopped playing the game of chicken, and ducked into a tourist gift shop so i wouldn't have to continue pacing alongside the guy.

one of the funniest (funny to me) signs i saw on a business was this:

i think of all the madness that many friends of mine will cause given that this is a time-limited buffet for dimsum!!! (BP#1, and BP#3, i'm talking about both of you who did not stop eating at the buffet when power went out and they had to light candles in the dead of winter and you ate through the drama anyway)

i spent a lot of time at the Van Gogh museum - first of all, i realized that all my life i've butchered his name, second of all, try as i might, i still can't pronounce it properly the real Dutch way!

i've been to art museums before where they showcase a certain style or time period or group of artists. However i LOVE the Van Gogh museum... the pieces are shown in chronological order, and you can see the transition in techniques and styles that Vincent was trying. (we're on first name basis as of my visit to his museum...) I did the audio tour and reading through all the background and history of the time period, of the life and drama and events in Vincent's life, it gives you a real personal glimpse into how his art reflects his life and vice versa... it's made all the pieces very contextually relevant to who he is at various point of his life... LOVED this.

you weren't allow to take pictures in the Starry Sky exhibit, but i took this picture outside near the POSTER for the exhibit

I also went to the Rijksmuseum which has quite a few Rembrandts including the Night Watcher. I was drained and tired at this point, so i was a bit spoiled and only looked for the Rembrandts to see.

As part of the "IAmsterdam" tourist card, i got a free canal boat ride, which worked out perfectly because my feet hurt like mad - and sitting down for an hour sounded fabulous.

this boat looks like it's in trouble

i wandered by the floating flower market, these are some of my favorite flowers.

of course, no tourist area is complete without trying to sell you Dutch wooden clogs:

i loved the beautiful concert hall:

at night i decided to visit the Red Light District - there really is a red light that is at the frontiers of the start of the district:

----------------------------------------------

i've read the diary in high school, i knew the subject... i went to Anne Frank's house where tons of tourists line up to visit it daily. (David Sedaris wrote about how surprisingly roomy the living area is).

however, i didn't realize how hauntingly impactful i would feel... i don't have personal ties to the holocaust, but seeing the video clips, the stories, the pictures, really hits that this all took place right here, not so long ago. in order not to repeat our mistakes, we must remember our past, the history.

even though it was lunchtime when I was done visiting Anne Frank's house, i really lost my appetite for the first time on my trip...

--------------------

Amsterdam is a beautiful city, clean and scenic, it's got its own history...
the food was so-so, but it's definitely got its own flair. (fantastic Gouda cheese unlike i've ever had)... back to Milano for 2 days until wrapping up Italy, and heading to London on route back to California.

La Spezia & Cinque Terre

2009-06-04T20:02:00.000-07:00

once again, being in Bologna station, we were waiting patiently for our train to Parma to switch to La Spezia...

our train was supposed to leave out of Platform 4b

hm....

well as far as the eye can see, we only see NUMBERED platforms. (unlike Harry Potter's Platform 9 3/4) so we waited, but no train came on platform 4 at the designated time - but no one else looked hurriedly panicked either.

10 minutes after the train was due to have left, BB walked up and down the entire platform, then pointed to a remote little corner of the Bologna station where the platforms are half the length of the regular platforms - and we agreed that it MUST be the "b" platforms.

so, we caught the next train to Parma, which gave us nearly 2 hour of layover at Parma station. Parma smells like cow poo, and i was told it's because all the farming and cows that made the yummy yummy parmesan cheese i love.

Parma also gave me the worse mosquito bite within 2 minutes of stepping onto their platform...

by the time we board the train to La Spezia, it was dark out... it's a local train so the inside was dirty and messy, but we were too tired to care. BB fell asleep and I was trying to keep track of what stations - without announcements, and when it's dark out and the stations are tiny and it's all in the dark...

thankfully our hotel was a stone's throw away from La Spezia train station.

BB was too tired but i was famished even at 10:30pm, so i wandered over to the restaurant across the street to have dinner...

the waiter and owner were both older (50s) and having their own meal - turns out they didn't speak much english but i conveyed that i wanted what they were having.

yummmm.. my dinner was a sizeable grilled fish - so fresh - served simply with a wedge of lemon. it was perfect, i was craving some *real* food, but it wasn't too heavy to be having so late at night and i can go to sleep afterward...

-------- May 18th - Cinque Terre --------------

We were excited and finally rested to explore Cinque Terre - from La Spezia the train ride is about 15 minutes to the further village - Monterosso.

We started with the hike from Monterosso to Vernazza - apparently this is one of the harder stretches, which we didn't realize until later. When we got to Vernazza, we had lunch there, well deserved.

i had the warm octopus salad with potatos - yummy. then i had anchoives baked with tomatos and potatos. i realized that fresh anchoives are only ok (sorry hurc) - the bones are just long enough to feel very uncomfortable to chow down. BB had fritto mista - mixed fried seafood, of which mostly it's comprised of squid, some shrimp, and a bit of anchoives. she didn't like it, and i tried to help her out but it was way greasy.

we had to console ourselves by having gelato, before we decided to hike from Vernazza to Corniglia.

more pictures...

Manarola:

we had dinner at Manarola, i had spaghetti alla mare, BB had speghetti pomodoro. it was yum - you can't go wrong with pasta. BB wanted to capture Manarola in the sunset and at night time with the lights shining on it, so we walked back to the walkway to try to capture this - well she was to capture this. i was to capture the sunset (but secretly i think she just wanted to keep me occupied so i wouldn't be dead bored) :)

the last stretch of the 11km (650meters of elevation change) we decided would be our most leisurely walk, so we did it after dinner... this part is called Via dell'Amore (lovers lane) and is paved, the scenary was nice but really nothing spectacular after all the other hikes of the day.

Conclusion

The hike through all 5 villages of Cinque Terre is beautiful and breathtaking - literally because of all the steep stairs and variations in elevations, the narrow unpaved walkways (at times patchy steps are created acrosss cliffsides) - but the view is equally stunning and breathtaking. it is worth every painful step - after the first stretch, i was skeptical about continuing... BB asks what else would we do if we don't hike the rest - good point, since we weren't there to lie in the sun on the beach all day, nor train it everywhere... i'm glad she voted for us to complete the whole hike, it was a great walk, and soooo worthwhile.

Thus ends the first Cinque Terre day...

-------- Cinque Terre day 2 ----------

it being my bday, BB was so thoughtful and asked me what i wanted to do. my only answer was 'dip my feet into the water at the beach!'

we started off at La Spezia, where the great poets like Byron had found inspiration at the Gulf of La Spezia. all that inspiration makes a girl hungry, so we found a little pizzeria on a side street and sat down, only to discover...

THE BEST PIZZA of our lives!
i ordered the "nord special" which is pizza with truffle cream and porchini mushrooms. the flavor was sooo sinfully rich, so decadent, but soooooo tasty. if it were a man i would've married it on the spot.

BB had a simple prosciutto with rucola and tomato sauce and cheese - so simply delicious, you taste the freshness of each ingredient and the bouquet of how all the flavors complement each other.

to amuse me and my bday request, we started off our 2nd day at Cinque Terre started at Monterrosso and i hiked the treacherous few feet to waddle into the ocean waters... the beach at this part was rocky, like uneven, painful rocks. all i could do is avoid grimacing to try and enjoy dipping my feet into the water

BB and i spend late afternoon sitting here admiring the view and enjoying early sunset... i wrote some postcards here...

we went back to La Spezia for dinner, but ended up eating at a semi-fast-food type of italian place, where the price is cheap but the food was less than ideal. it was 'ok' and not 'bad'. but we were tired so we ate it and went home and fell asleep.
So ended the 2nd day at Cinque Terre... the next day is a travel day, me back to Milano, BB back to Zurich (to ready for her Moscow work trip - she is a globe trotter!)

More pictures....

Bologna

2009-06-04T11:28:00.001-07:00

After the train station incident, BlueBirdy (BB) and i went to Mestre to pick up luggage, back to Venizia Santa Maria station and got on the overnight train (final destination of train was Napoli) so we can get to Bologna.

Italian night trains don't announce stops, so all you have to go by is the estimated time of arrival - set your watch for 10 minutes before the ETA, then watch and see if the train pulls into your destination around the time they said. Italian trains also run on Amy time - they are anywhere from on-time to 15 minutes late. So you have a moving target of 30 minute window to look out for your stop.

BB and i managed to find an empty cabin (row of 3 seats facing another 3 seats in the compartment) and we didn't put our luggage up on the shelf in case people with assigned seats were going to claim them. Then 3 guys came in and asked if they can sit here too... they seemed harmless and friendly, so we decided to include them and then close the compartment door quickly to exclude anyone else from intruding into our little comfortable space...

The one who spoke the most english was Lucas, the friend Gabriel in the middle is quiet but eagerly planning their days in Rome and all the things he had been waiting to see. The cutest one was Paolo who sat across from BB and spoke the least amount of english (but we all communicated fabulously between all our languages)
Brazil (southern) seems like a beautiful place to visit, i wouldn't mind taking a trip there someday...

the train stopped at this random station for about 20 minutes, we all thought it's going to delay all the other stops, but surprisingly, 2:30am came by and we were in Bologna!

------ Trapped in Bologna ---------------

BB and i got out with our luggages, and maybe one or two other people got off at the station - middle of the night, i guess there's no crowds.

We followed the Uscita sign to exit, and walked all the way to the lobby when we realized the doors were chained shut - and the place was full of homeless people taking shelter because it's cozy and warm inside. One of them shouted something we couldn't understand, we figured they were reiterating that this was closed.

we walked back towards the platform we got off at, and i saw the walkway up towards an overpass where cars were passing by. At the platform, there's also a locomotive by itself, steaming off into the distance, probably being fixed. As BB and I dragged our suitcases toward the walkway, she said to me "this is like seriously old days in Chenoby or something"...

we managed to wrestle all the stuff we were carrying to the top of the walkway only to find the doors similarly chained shut, and we can see the door that opens to the street but can not go through.

Exhausted, and tired, and trapped in Bologna station, we hauled everything back to the platform.

I stopped for a moment - there is no way that we are literally locked inside Bologna train station, even though it felt like it. I took a breath. Then i told BB - every station, platform 1 opens directly to street level - there has been no doors, you just walk right in - we MUST be able to exit via that way.

finally, we got out of the station, and walked across the street to check into our hotel. at 3am, another couple was there checking in (a very demanding and high maintenance Polish woman, with her Canadian husband)
Our heads hit the bed after quick showers until morning, where we had to pack up and check the bags at the hotel and explore Bologna.

-------- Bologna on a Sunday ----------------

BB and I started exploring Bologna on a sunday. we saw a beautiful fountain by the city wall and took some pictures

Almost nothing is open until after siesta in Bologna on a sunday... we were the riff raff that wandered the streets window shopping... we headed towards downtown but decided that our priorities were in order and lunch was the main point...

I had - surprise drum roll - Spaghetti Bolognese in Bologna

and it was delish. SOOOOOOOOO good, the sauce was perfect, meaty and not heavy.
the best bolognese sauce i've ever had.

we found our way to the main church and museum area in Bologna, but BB and I were exhausted from all the walking, the being trapped in train stations, the churches and museums... we walked around, saw an interesting fountain

(interesting and obnoxious)

then we just sat outside this ledge outside a scenic church and chatted and hung out for over an hour, talking to our hearts' content about books we read, things we've seen, life, pets, whatever else happen to come up.

we slowly mozie our way back to hotel to get our luggage and take the train to Parma, to switch trains to La Spezia.

Venizia

2009-06-03T13:18:00.000-07:00

Friday I trained to Venizia (Mestre, really, which is a 6 minute train ride from Venice and the price for hotels so much better - thanks Brian for recommending this).
There was some miscommunications so by the time i met up with Ms BlueBirdy, it was later afternoon...

Venice was beautiful to see, my jaws dropped in amazement... all the canels and side streets and bridges everywhere!!!

however, it was a bit 'disneyland' like, because Venice is full of tourists, in hoards, en masse, and besides St Mark's square and the churches and museum, the REST of venice are hotels, restaurants, and every shop is murano glass shops. After a street or two, one gets nauseated and tired of all the similar stores... honestly they all look the same!!!

------------------ Day 1 ---------------------------------

We had a decent meal there, where I complained about the rude service (BlueBirdy thought it was fine, then again back in Zurich she had waiters yell AT her so she's probably got lower standards than i do).

we were walking back to the train station that night, when her italian-moroccan 'boyfriend' called (i used the term loosely, he was a waiter at the restaurant that hit on her the night before)... he asked us to come to his restaurant to have wine and he would get off work soon to show us around.

so we stopped by to have wine. which was weird, because they chilled the red wine. BlueBirdy thinks it's to keep the bland house red wine 'good' for longer by chilling in the fridge. we waited until it was room temp before we had it. i also spilled all over the tablecloth trying to pour the wine (this was before i even had wine, so could not think i was tipsy, just clumsy as usual)

So the Waiter-BF came by, told us how much to leave for the wine (no discounts at all, cheap b-a-s-t-a-r-d!) and we walked out into the night. he wanted us to go back to his place for more wine, we said we'd compromise on staying out a bit later if we all head to a bar, he said it would be expensive. (we're thinking, how so, we're paying our own way anyway, not like he was BUYING us, or BlueBirdy, drinks). We couldn't come to a compromise, so BlueBirdy broke his heart and we left for our hotel....

------------------ Day 2 ---------------------------------

we decided to do Murano Island on day 2, BlueBirdy wanted to see glass blowing demostration, which one would imagine would be easy enough to find when Murano glass is world famous... however most places on the island are mere shops and display galleries, it took us some time to find a workshop that had real glass blowing demostration - i think it was the best 2 euros i've spent in Europe...

they made a glass flower for chandelier, a glass vase, a glass horse... BlueBirdy with her fancy camera took pictures... i just watch in amazement...

we walked through their gallery afterwards and I loved the new style chandeliers

besides shopping for Murano glass, the only other thing we wanted to do was to do a Gondola ride...

so we did

Here's a pic of BlueBirdy with a sly grin on her face, we think we got the best looking Gondola driver that day...

we had to negotiate a price for the gondola ride. when we got off the ride, BlueBirdy asks the gondola man 'so, how much would this ride be if your shirt was off?' - at first the guy didn't get it, then she repeated it and you see the slow spread of comprehension on his face as he got it, but he didn't reply... oh well.
nice move though, BlueBirdy!

------- The screaming match in the Train Station -------

BlueBirdy's blog has always been full of interesting stories.
Interesting in both the good and the bad ways sometimes... I never really believed the frequency of these interesting stories that happen to her to be totally coincidence - i guess i always thought her imaginative writing talent is partly what makes these incidents so interesting.

after a whole day in Venice and Murano, we were buying our train ticket to Mestre to pick up our luggage to get to Bologna. It was much later than we had planned, but we were so laissez faire about it so neither was stressed (i love travelling this way...)
we were in the train station, trying to sort it out on the ticket machine - BlueBirdy was manipulating the touch screens so we can pretend-see what the itinararies would be and such...
before i knew what was happening i saw an unfamiliar arm in front of me. All the stories and warnings have kicked in and my instinct was to immediately clutch my purse closer to my body.
A split second later I tried to comprehend what's going on, it seems that these 2 guys (early 20s) were buying tickets at the next machine - well the less drunk was. The really drunk one had come over and reached in front of me to extend a silk yellow flower to BlueBirdy - and wavered it alarmingly close to her face.

A roar of wrath washed over her, and she told him in a very loud voice 'Back off! go away!'. He was shocked and it took him a moment to comprehend what she said (cognitive skills slowed down by the massive amount of alcohol in his bodily system). He staggered backwards toward his friend, but felt 'wronged' and mumbled 'YOU back off!' back to BlueBirdy. He also staggered forward again to be in her face...

Now BlueBirdy really let it rip, she yelled "F-off! get that out of my face NOW!" and took the strand of silk flower from his hand and threw it - violently - across the train station lobby "F-off!" she yelled at him. He yelled back "F-off!" a few times to her, the friend was half distracted but still trying to buy their train ticket.

I stood frozen, not quite in fear but trying to understand the situation. my brain said, ok, he's not trying to rob me, and it took another moment to realize what the yelling was about.

BlueBirdy continued "If you don't back off I'm going to kick your butt, I'm so going to make you wish you were never born" (at least, i think she said something to that extend - i'm paraphrasing but i think i caught the spirit of the conversation)

At this point the guy was also yelling "You back off, i'm going to kick your butt...."

at this point, BlueBirdy was lunging at him, about to pounce. Then she looked and saw me between them on the side, shocked expression, slow realization, confused look (i'm good at those)... and I said to her "let's just go, this is not worth it..." (without really realizing what it was she might have really done to him)... so she and I just walked away as the friend pulled the other guy back.

of course we laughed about it, but what a crazy random out of the blue thing to happen at the Venice train station at 11pm...

and i have absolutely no doubt she would've kicked his butt. i'd put money on it.

Firenze

2009-06-03T05:55:00.000-07:00

ok so i realized that i don't have any Florence notes written down... but that's because we were so busy and time just flew by!

Florence is when i met up with Hurc and his gf, we shall call her Sa. (i'm lazy and like to save letters when typical repetitive stuff, sorry).
Having travelled by myself, i was like an overly excited puppy when i saw them on sunday...

-------------- the worst meal ever in italy -----------------

we decided we were hungry and wanted to grab food - now i always have craved pasta so that was my request - somewhere we can get pasta. hurc was craving pizza, so we thought we should go somewhere that has both.

within 3 blocks from the hotel where we walked, we saw a place that was opened, there were people eating outside, so we decided to eat there.
they had almost nothing available (the pizza was only available at dinner) - Sa's risotto nero (black ink risotto) was so salty you can scarcely take a tiny itty bite before turning your head away in disgust... we sent it back and they brought around a more edible plate of raviolis in tomato sauce. the food was bland and watery.

i have decided at this point that the produce in Italy was sooooo fresh and good, that one really need to make an effort to ruin the food - and this restaurant made an effort certainly.

-------------- the market....... ----------------

after siesta, we had gelato, and
we headed out towards the Leather Market, which is a daily street market with vendors sellings everything, cashmere scarfs (i wanted to buy all of them!), leather purses and jackets, misc... not expecting to actually buy anything, the 3 of us all ended up buying a leather jacket each - the deal was great, the guy sold me on that the leather didn't scartch and can be folded up - with my rough and tumbly personality, this was the definite selling point. we were at the market quite late, and then went to eat at a recommended place for dinner, which was quite good. the waiters were cute too... speaking english with their little italian accents.

---------------- The Mall ---------------------

Monday was a blur to me, we took the 1 hour (each way) bus ride to "The Mall" which is an outlet (loosely called 'outlet') for all the brand name, including Gucci and Armani and the such. I didn't buy much but Sa had a great time there, the prices seemed really good...

we ate at the hotel restaurant that night because we were too tired to explore.. it was yummy

--------------- Museum day --------------

We spent tuesday going to museums... Muse D'academia was nice, Michelangelo's David was there and hella impressive... I never really understood why it was impressive, but like most other things i've seen on the trip, it is really to see it in real life do you get the grandeur of it... to see marble so smooth and capturing the muscles and tendons and grace of the figure...

then we hurried through 3 hour tour of Muse D'Uffici, where the greats are all there: Rambrant, Michelangelo, Boticelli, Raffaelo, Bellini... there was so much to see that even the 3 hours seems rushed, a full day would've been better but sooo much walking...

---------- cooking class ---------------

Wednesday was a 5 hour Florence style cooking class that was fun... we made fresh pasta, with a meaty vegetable ragu, pizza, pork roast over orange and fennels (i discovered that i love fennels), asparagus ricotta crepe, and wine poached pears. I loved everything, and definitely will make the pasta at home!!!!!

pics were taken by hurc, and i'm sure he'll post them later. good meal. and i had too much wine

--------- Siena ------------------

thursday was bus ride to Siena, which i think architecturally I prefer over Florence, though both are beautiful and similar in many ways. The piazza where the twice-yearly horse race for the Il Palio festival is amazing!
we walked to the top of the capella (dome) of the church right at the square (some 400 steps) and had a breathtaking view of the city...

sorry for the brief blog, but Florence was a haze... great time spent with friends, we laughed, we giggled, we travelled, ate well, had lots of fun.....

i forgot to write down my thoughts for the city, so i might discover them at a later time, but for now, poor Florence will have to suffice with my inadequate descriptions of the 4 day folly there...

backlogged, but logged on now...

2009-06-03T05:35:00.000-07:00

let me start by saying that i am safely back in San Jose *please hold all applause and cheering until the end*

So this blog is like one of those novels that tells you how it ends, and then fills in the gap, so there you have it, you KNOW how it ends, and there's nothing broken and i'm alive and kicking, so put the disappointments away...

i am backlogged on the blog entries i know - but fear not, i have written - manually even - into my trusty travel notebook my thoughts and i had made myself promise to update this blog faithfully because i'm that arrogant that i think people actually read this and find this blog to be somewhat more amusing than they daily work, but perhaps just a tad less amusing than The Daily Show.

So let me take you back to the journey, I will try to keep each city as a seperate entry and take you chronologically forward starting with Florence. i have not abandoned you, my faithful readers...

Still alive and kicking

2009-05-27T00:44:00.001-07:00

Today is laundry and gelato day - I owe you tons of blog updates but that all will have to wait until I get decent Internet at home instead of pan stakingly typing on my iPhone keyboard...

Yesterday I woke up without any alarms and from lack of sleep the day before, it felt soooo restful. I finally feel like i'm on vacation - it only took me 4 weeks!!! Travel days are exhausting, the day before, I got into Amsterdam at 6:30am and bumbled along until cafes opened at 8am... Spent that day exploring Amsterdam, then took all of the following transports, in order: tram, train, plane, express shuttle bus, metro and tram.... Totally tired out!

Today I'll do laundry, go shop and eat all my Milanese favorites!

Will pack today too, I've managed not to buy many souvenirs because I have this obsession with packing light - have left behind 2 shirts (Florence and Cinque Terre) as well as a pair of flipflops (Amsterdam) so understand if you won't get any trip memorabilias from me! I'm fair equally to everyone like that!!

Tomorrow starts the stretch to London where i'll be trading fantastic Italian food for ability to speak the local language... My converters won't work in London (neither will my euros) so not even my phone will work when I land into sfo Monday afternoon. It doesn't feel like 5 weeks have gone, but I do feel a famailar soft spot in my heart hearing Italian - I've mastered ordering gelato and at restaurants in Italian without an ounce of panic, so mission accomplished.

Fear not, I have written some keywords from my travels so I won't forget them when I get to blog at leisure about my adventures. Life has been sooo much fun and full of stories, this trip has been trip of a lifetime!

Hungry, gonna forage in the kitchen and attack the big chunk of fabulous Netherlands Gouda cheese I brought back to share with TH and TW.

-- Post From My iPhone

this is what happens...

2009-05-09T02:14:00.000-07:00

when an internet addict is deprived due to 0.35/minute and now has access to the internet...
hahahah i've been online way too long!
the day is wasting away!

anyways, i've managed to create a flickr account so i can upload my phone photos which contained my food pictures.
what you've been waiting for... i actually took the time to painstakingly write a comment for the photos so you won't just see random pictures, since all of this makes sense to me but probably not to anyone else, without an explanation

FOOD tour:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38210613@N04/sets/72157617896399864/

Roma tour:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70722717@N00/sets/72157617895511382/

more thoughs on Rome

2009-05-09T01:02:00.000-07:00

yesterday i trained back to Milano...
i must say the high speed train first class is quite comfy, i enjoy the train rides more than i thought i would...

more thoughts on Rome...

yesterday i had no real plans for anything... after re-finishing Angels & Demons, i decided to take myself to Piazza Navona since it means passing through the Spanish Steps and the Pantheon.

another sunny day in Roma - Roma is quite nice when the weather permits. i checked out of the hotel and, backpack ready, made my way..
the Spanish steps were less crowded today and seemed less pretty somehow... i stood there a full minute before i realized that all the potted flowers from the other day was gone... plus it's way more beautiful near later afternoon/dusk time...
trekking my way, my feet no longer feel tired. it's only painful when you stop and rest for a few minutes, then try to walk again.

the key to my trip is that i'm bumbling along, didn't really do all that much research. Especially for Rome, where people have stayed for weeks and feel like they have not seen enough - i figured that's the attitude i should have...
I pass by the parliment buildings (bonus!) and a bunch of random churches and obelisks.

i probably took the longest way to Piazza Navona... walked the longest perimeter around it that one can walk without seeing an entrance... when i walked in, there was music, and lots of people, the sun was blazing, the fountain was gorgerous... i sat by the fountain for 10 minutes just observing it all and letting the sun bask on my skin.

all along the piazza were the tourist trap restaurants - the maitre d' / head waiter is more like your Amway salesman trying to 'woo' you into sitting down at their restaurant. once you sit down, the service is noticeably less attentive. ah, just like men ;) once they have you, they are busy searching for others... *wink*

i got a gelati limone - believe it or not i hadn't had gelato until then in Roma. it was very yummy - not quite icy, not quite ice cream, but the best of both worlds, tart and creamy yet not overly rich. I wander into the specialty shops (per my Lonely Planet guide) - of the Monk-created grappa/lotions store, then the first pharmacy/Monk-related perfume/lotions store. at the hefty price of 70 euros for a bottle of perfume, i spray tested a few and continued to wander.

i made my way back to Piazza Navona, and walked into Church di Sant'Agnese in Agone. the ceiling was magnificent and huge, and circular - the painting too, looks skewed and lopsided until you are directly under the center of the painting - then the layers of clouds and angels and movement of the painting hits you. beautiful and hard to capture, in words or pictures.
as usual per my tradition, i spent another 10 minutes in church, sitting, saying a quick prayer and feeling the church.
i'm a heathen by most standards, and the last mass i remember going to was for midnight mass at christmas some time back (it was beautiful) - but i feel spiritual when i walk inside these basilicas.

it is touching to see what grand masterpieces of art that can be created, designed and built by people who have such a strong believe in their faith.

----------------------------------

after being a bit disgusted by all the woo-ing waiters (woo-ing for my tourist euros, mind you), i decided to grab lunch en route back to the spanish steps. the choice was sit down and take a chance at all the tourist restaurants along the way, or when i pass by, i saw people who bought pizza-by-the-slice at the take out pizzaerias. decision made.

when in rome, i decided to try for pizza that i normally might not eat - i think my pizza had tomato, and napa-cabbage-like greens, and anchioves. the crust is delicious - thicker than the ones i've had in Milan - soft on top and crunchy on the bottom, a perfect melange of the textures. it was so good i ended up eating more crust than the insides (the anchioves were surprisingly non-offending, they were just a bit too salty and i should've wash it down with wine but i was eating and walking, like good north american tourists are prone to do - instead of sitting down and chilling over a relaxing lunch like italians would).

i then loitered onto the Spanish steps once again... i can see why people think this place is romantic. although taking stock of the people here around 1pm, lots of tourists and mostly families, or friends just hanging out - not so much of that yucky sickly kissy couples.

made my way to the train station, and got back to Milano.

TW came back from her week long school trip (did i mention she is doing a masters at Bocconi?) her trip had involved 1 week at a culinary school here in Parma. a real culinary school, like for chefs - as part of her school. :) so envious...
we had dinner out (sushi, because she's had overloads of fantastic local italian food all week) with TH and their friend. the area they live in is pretty trendy (not like Louis Vuitton flagship store, but more college crowd age gathering to hang out).
we decided to be Milanese, so we followed the crowds into a little grocery store to buy beer, and just hung out outside the piazza at San Lorenzo church, on Ticinese street.

today they are on a day trip to Lugano, so i can use the laptop to do my random online stuff. having issues with facebook app on iphone for uploading, so i've uploaded to my flickr account - will blog from there about my food randomly (and probably out of chronological order).

hey you

2009-05-07T15:02:00.000-07:00

by the way if you're following along on my blog, why don't you leave me a comment???
that way i know that someone is reading my stupid stories :)
otherwise, i'll just write to myself in an email...
hahahah

ok, where's that "donate to my paypal button" for sponsorship?
just joking. maybe we can sponsor more internet minutes at this hotel...

:) ciao, next stop, Milan, then Florence on Sunday! meeting hurc and his gf.

befriending Roma

2009-05-07T14:29:00.000-07:00

it's been a sunny 2 days, so Roma looks a lot prettier. it's not like i have anything AGAINST the city, i just didn't like my first impression...

the first half of my day was spent touring the Vatican... i know there are things i'll never finish seeing here - if you were to spend 60 seconds at each artistic piece, it will take you 12 years to complete...

since i wasn't so sure i'd do the Vatican justice on my own, i booked a tour for the Vatican... i haven't ever gone on tours, but this has got to be one of the most interesting tours ever...
the history, the stories, the drama behind all the big paintings and the big artists the contributed to some of the art at the Vatican museum (besides all the stuff pillaged and stolen from other people)...

after the extensive 3 hour tour (I would recommend this tour for ANYONE going to Vatican for the first time) i was tired already, but decided to take on the challenge of 320 steps to walk up (halfway) to the Dome in St Peter's basilica. the view is spectacular. my tour guide had told us the Dome was so high that you can fit the Statue of Liberty beneath it.

afterwards, i tagged along with these 2 women from my tour to have lunch. they were nice enough to let me join them, although the conversation kind of fizzled out after the initial getting-to-know-each-other surface info.
then i decided to make my way to the Pantheon and the Trevi fountain.

i like hanging out and inside these monuments - all the loitering and people watching. i spent 15 minutes on the marble columns outside the Pantheon just relaxing...
then i found a nice place for dinner... and ended up sitting next to another person dining solo.
i struck up a conversation by asking if he spoke english, and then would he like the rest of my wine (the waiter brought me a half bottle... yeah ok, if i had it i wouldn't have made it back to hotel) and we struck up a conversation and we're both Canadians (him from Ottawa) and we had an interesting conversation about italy, italian language, the state of things in Canada, etc etc...

at the end he even made sure he paid for half my wine.
dinner was decently costly - 40 euros for my spaghetti carbonara, osso buco, half an order of wine, pellagrino and pistachio tiramisu.
but the ambiance was great and the food was fantastic. yum

oh yeah, the guy is about 60 years old, retired and his wife is at home in Ottawa.
(in case you thought i struck gold and was meeting random cute young single men at restaurants...)

anyways, hung out by the Trevi fountain at night, it's all lit up and pretty. someone proposed and everyone clapped - i missed the proposal and only heard the clapping. very scenic moment.

now i took myself back home and decided to write all this stuff down before my bed hits the pillow. without proper internet access at my fingertips and no tv to boot, i'm blazing through the books like mad....

like drugs...

2009-05-07T14:04:00.000-07:00

i walk like a zombie to the hotel lobby, the guy behind the counter already knows what i need.

i blindly hand over the cash. he nods, and asks me the same question every time. it's like a drug deal except the drug is internet time, and it's legal and i bet the cost is more than drugs go for on the streets (with some bargaining) :)

accidental steps... Spagne

2009-05-06T11:06:00.000-07:00

ok, so i'm trying to make my peace with Roma.
not that i didn't want to come to Rome, but i felt *obligated* to come, because all the great meaningful historical 'stuff' is here...

my first impression of Roma isn't so impressive... rainy, i dragged my touristy butt wandering around to find my hotel - where the average age of guests is 55 or so. (kid you not). the room itself is tidy and water pressure is great - but tv is tiny and the only english channgel, BBC news, is grainy. internet is costing me 0.35 euros a MINUTE.

i wandered around, partly in the rain, but i outlasted the rain yesterday afternoon... walked down near the vatican and had a moment of nice reflection as the sun came out of the clouds and shone on the vatican entrance...

dinner last night was the first time i took myself out on a date - hey i'm a tourist, it's ok that i'm 'eccentric' right?
walking in the door, the hostess asks in bad english 'are you lonely?'
sure i knew what she mean, alone, lonely... but with the rain and the bad first impression yesterday, it was a bit 'lonely' because i hadn't loved this city yet.

(sorry for gleaming over details, i'm really on a by-second countdown here)

this morning, i decided to make peace with the city. afterall i have 2.5 more days here to frolick.

before i left, TH had help me plan out a semi-laissez-faire Rome trip. Today on my 'schedule' loosely was coliseum and the forum.
it was sunny and started getting hot by mid day. The coliseum is breath-taking in grandeur. I'm sure it must be prettier still at night. i got the audio tour, although it seemed like kids doing homework - the first half of the tour was detailed and fantastic, the lower half of the colisuem audio tour was barely there and short. oh well... the place is beautiful. imagine rooting for a Sharks Stanley cup game there!!!
:)

From there I walked across the street to the Forum. now, i didn't really consult my tour book too much, but hey it's right there across from the coliseum! i checked on my tourist map and i can see it from the 2nd story of the coliseum.
i walked up a windy path, as with many other tourists there and back. at the top of the path was a small tiny church. that was IT.
there were people across the various gates along the path, on the OTHER side was the forum.

when i finally walked around to the entrance, i was already tired. but hey, that's my scheduled today right... i found my way through all the highlights on my Forum audiotour... Palatino... i even sneaked into several english tour groups to evesdrop on the guides' stories... :)

then i was so hungry it was 3pm and i hadn't eaten, so i broke down and ate at a tourist-trap which was ok.

now i thought about going back to the hotel, but that seemed kind of lame as it was still early in the day. i ended up walking into a sephora to shop and questioned the sales girl there about where to go for shopping.

She pointed me to the metro stop Spagne... so i thought, ok, now my feet hurt past the point where i feel them, if i stop, i won't want to restart. i might as well spend a few hours seeing the shopping district here...

i got out of the Spagne station, and it's FULL of people, tourists, tour groups...
then i found a beautiful picturesque church above some steps. So many people congregating there...
i decided I was really really tired, so i sat amongst the groups on the steps, staring back down at the people taking pictures. I imagine being in the background of no less than 100 pictures, kind of like Where's Waldo - in strangers pictures.
I finally decided to walk and check out the church on top. Before i got there, i heard english being spoken... i struck up a conversation with this older couple... they were super nice.

they hadn't walked into the church yet... but we exchanged stories about the italian cities we've seen so far. then i asked if the Spanish Steps were nearby.
The man said 'this is less impressive than you thought huh!' and waved his hands towards the down steps of where i'd loitered...
WHAT?? i loitered there resting my weary feet. turns out i was ON the Spanish Steps. :)
i kind of like the serenditity of it all...

i made it to the church on top, and even sat there for half and hour observing a ceremony that was happening. the nuns and preists were all in white robes, the singing was peaceful and calming...

then i walked around the district and realize that these are the big names, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, etc etc. Shopping - yes. not for my price range.
so i decided to make my way home...

now i'm on the common computer 'business center' in the bar area... the clock is ticking on how much time i have left.
might come back online after dinner, we shall see :)

teachers' lounge

2009-05-04T00:20:00.000-07:00

we awoke early today - 6:30am - it takes 45 minutes sans traffic to get to school...
but i'm not tired at all since the backdrop is so peaceful we all went to bed early. if it wasn't for my cough that wakes me up every hour at night, i would've had even better sleep... as it is, i felt pretty restful. (i think my body's internal clock is constantly resetting and therefore still very confused which isn't bad since i'm still travelling and re-adjusting all the time)

last night we dined al fresco on Nat's beautiful balcony, the view of the lake in the background, candlelight, wine, fresh apple juice nat's mom made... nat's italian husband made this simple yet delicious tomato-mozarella whole wheat pasta, i inhaled it... we had so much fun laughing until our stomach hurts (nat spoke italian with her husband, spanish with her mom and english with me... we had some moments of cross-lingual hilarious misunderstandings!!!!)

then for dessert we had the panna cotta nat made in her ThermoMix (i soooo want one of these, it literally replaces all the various appliances in the kitchen)
i swear, it's the best homemade dessert i've ever had... soooo smooth and creamy. (Nat disappeared for literally 2 minutes to make fresh chocolate sauce... no need for double boiling in case of burning chocolate on the stove or having it seize like so much of my chocolate experiments in the past) OMG, i only had room for half of it last night (her mom also made really good pecan pie) - and no fear, this morning at 6:30am, i wolfed down the rest of it so it wouldn't go to waste....

that was a fantastic family meal, location, great company, super yummy food, and loads of fun.

this place is magical...

taking the train back to Milano this afternoon, am at the school being online for a few hours until lunch....

if my EuRail pass arrive today, I'm off to Roma tomorrow (otherwise, wednesday is Rome) come back to Milano friday afternoon, and off to Firenze on Sunday...

lilac

2009-05-03T07:03:00.000-07:00

this shopping blog entry is dedicated to all my girl friends out there living vicariously through my patchwork versions of misadventures in europe... :)
And Nat made 'panna cotta' in her thermomix, we're having it for dessert tonight!

-----------------------------

it's a beautiful quiet after at my friend Nat's place (she's sleeping at the moment - afternoon nap, she is exhausted from lack of sleep at nights as i'm sure mothers everywhere can attest to that amount of sleep deprivation from having 2 young kids close in age)

if i had to imagine paradise on earth, this little slice of the world would be it.

Maccagno is a little town that borders Lago Maggiore - one of the 4 famous northern italian lakes (only 2 of the 4 border both Swizterland and Italy) - the scenery is breathtaking here, a complete world apart from San Jose. the lakes are stunningly beautiful, the mountains in the background (with snow on top, just like any typical pictures of 'swiss mountains)!!!!

Nat's kids are beautiful and so adorable - Sebatian, 2 years 4 months, and Lucas, 7 months, are the tamest and most adorable boys i've ever seen. Nat works full time at a school in Lugano, and i'm envious of all the kids that get to go there...

before i left Milano, i serendiptiously walked into a shoe shop around the corner from my friends' place and bought a pair of italian leather short boots for 40 euros (50% off sale).... this morning we went to Cannobio, which is a town across the lake, took a ferry, and the scene is unreal. it's beautiful like in the pictures or movies, except it's real. parts of the twisty windy little roads look like montreal but even older - one can imagine having lived here many many years ago. Yet all along the shore, the markets were robust and bursting with activity - people selling anything: clothes, aprons, postcards, purses, toys, etc.

i broke down and bought a purse... honestly it was love at first sight, we walked off the ferry, the purse caught my eye, but we wandered through all the stalls, then had a nice lunch outdoors, then did a last round of shopping and i finally mustered up the courage to look at it closely and dared to ask the price.
The leather was so soft, i can make this my pillow and dream & drool on it all day long. once i touched it, i had the same feelings that came flooding back to me from many years ago - my friend Ange was the witness that during a starving phase of our french camp summer at Universite de Laval, i hugged a box of frozen chicken wings until we checked out and paid for it - or someone had to pry it out of my cold dead hands.
i was not leaving the market without this purse.

italian damage up to now: leather boots (1 pair), dreamily soft italian purse (1), pashima scarf (1 - but only because i had to match my purse)

the color of the purse is different from any i've ever own - lilac
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchid_(color)

risotto milanese...

2009-05-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

the house is soo peaceful and quiet... Nat lives on the hill overlooking Lake Maggione (sp?) and the view from her balcony is breathtaking...

her two little kids are wonderful too, Sebatien, who's 2 years + 4 months, is bashful but very gentle, and we spent the better part of the evening playing together. he loves his bricks, his firetrucks and his bulldozer... he's adorable, and totally stole my heart, so gentle.

Luca is a happy little boy, Nat's sister's in town next weekend for his baptism. both kids have huge adorable eyes... a beautiful family.

So Nat went on to make dinner (full time job, 2 kids and she made dinner - yeah i know, i can barely muster up energy to groceries after work!)
She told me of this amazing 'thermal pot' thing - chops, dices, sautees, and makes risotto in 1 machine!!!!!! no it really does and the risotto milanese we had for dinner was amazing.
unfortunately i didn't get to poke at it or check it out too much, i was busy having a playdate with Sebatien... it's been a while since i've spent that much time with kids, and we laughed and played and in the midst of it, he leans over and gives me a hug amidst all the giggles we shared... that kid just stole my heart...

Nat won't have to work detention tomorrow morning afterall, so we're going to have a chill weekend. i feel peaceful already and wish i don't have this cold - my cough is what's interrupting the serenity of this magical world.

ciao from Lugano, Switzerland...

2009-05-01T07:06:00.001-07:00

i'm writing from a REAL computer from my friend Nat's office here at the american boarding school...
the setting is serenly, breathtakingly beautiful...
you see the swiss alps in the mountain (my train actually goes all the way to Zurich and we passed Lake Como on the way here, but I got off at the Lugano station) - and the water, mountains, little streets.... bella!

the first thing about 5 minutes on the train out of milano, i noticed - quiet. where was the noise? it was strangely, peacefully quiet here once we were out of the city.

I was at Stazione Centrale in Milano, it was crazy packed, full of people coming and going, pushing and shoving with all the luggages and maps. There is a big billboard which everyone stands around looking at to wait for the updates... I was there 40 minutes before my train's departure, but the gate number isn't updated until 15 minutes till departure. It's like a huge lottery board, you look anxiously until your number is called and you 'win'. it's a bit hectic and stressful, but once i settled into my seat, it was all good...

the countryside is beautiful here, the first stop was Lake Como, which is a popular tourist spot - one can see why - the lake, the mountains made for a surreal postcard setting... it's a lovely sunny day...

at the next stop, some officials came on board and selective checked for passports, i guess i looked trustworthy, since they didn't check mine.

i got to Lugano and it's beautiful here, even more so than Lake Como, because the backdrop of the Swiss Alps framing the lake and the mountains. Nat picked me up from the station, and we took a windy road up to her work place - a boarding school here. I can't imagine how lucky it would've been to be able to afford to come here for school - we're a top a pretty hill, not much traffic... i hear the kids outside, laughing and having a great time. the school reminds me of our high school - although Sacred Heart PALES in comparison - if Sacred Heart was a 5/10 this is a 10/10 star school (it also reminds me of the Magical Boarding School from the tv show Charmed). I told Nat the irony of us not having seen each other since high school and now walking into the school...

i can imagine what life would be like here.. so serene and peaceful. Nat fell in love with this place and through it, eventually met her husband and now this is her life... this place is sooo different from the valley, it's like day and night.

we get to come back for saturday morning detention, so i can update the blog tomorrow morning.

sunny day in Milano - or is it

2009-04-29T14:51:00.000-07:00

after a near insomiac night again (i need to learn to take siestas in the afternoon, then staying up late won't be so bad), i was pleasantly woken up by streaming rays of sunshine... how wonderful!

did some dishes this morning... i was coming down with a cold, TW also was under the weather, and we thought TH can come home soon, so yesterday i bought 10 euros worth of ingredients and this morning made my chicken soup.
mind you it's nothing special (the only special ingredient is love, har har har) but for some reason, soup isn't big here, so i decided to make comfort chicken soup to sooth our souls.

after the pot is boiling away, i took a shower, and made brunch - yum yum
caprese salad with buffalo mozarella, silician tomatoes, garden basil, olive oil and aged vinegar... heavenly.

i'm not a dainty eater, and still hungry, i made toast, cut out a hole in the middle, cracked an egg and cook on a pan... delicious. topped with fresh smooth meltingly good goat cheese.

I hear the door and TH walked in - he was released from the hospital today, so good news.
TW has classes until 1pm, so I was going to start getting on my way to frolic around town, so the two of them can have some alone time to destress..

today i decided to do Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia "Leonardo da Vinci" - the National Science and Technology Leonardo da Vinci museum. Then go by the trendy fashion district where flagship Prada and Louis Vuitton stores are located.

on my way to the museum, an italian woman stopped me for directions to Courso Genova. which is the big street i live at. hahaha, irony.

the museum is huge, it's got all sorts of interesting stuff to see. there was an exhibit on jewellery (the history of it), sounds, musical instrument, time pieces through the eras, musical players, tv technology, radio technonlogy, astronomy, and of course Da Vinci - they took his designs from the notebooks and made working models...

it was quite intense walk, i didn't realize that one romp through the museums...
i was on my way toward the Duomo to find the Monte Napoleone where the fashion
flagship stores are.

then, the sky was DARK, like black, and started POURING.
so of course, i resort to buying an umbrella from the street vendors that walk up and down trying to sell roses/friendship bracelets/umbrellas dependng on the day and the time and the weather. i bought an ugly lime green umbrella for 5 euros, thinking the ugly color would deter thiefs and should remind me not to forget the umbrella behind.

on my way i stopped at Princi again for a quick bite, by then it was 5pm and i was famish...
picked up a small tiny sandwich with brie, prociutto, and thin slice pickle. also picked up 2 pastry filled with pastry cream. and 3 lemon macarons, and a small slice of strawberry custard tart. soooooo good.

at this point my feet was already tired. but i decided i hadn't done any workout since i arrived, and have been eating like a queen, so i should suck it up and walk some more.

got lost trying to find Monte Napoleone...
when i finally did, i walked my riff-raff butt into all the fancy stores - Louis Vuitton, La Perla, Armani, Prada... to their credit the store staff wasn't all Pretty-Woman snobby to me, but i guess they are used to seeing quite a few tourists tromping through in tourist outfits and then plopping down a ton of money to buy insane amount of brand name stuff.

at this point, i'm SOOOO tired. i walked back through the galleria which is a few huge blocks of covered outdoor shops, and found the nice Zara store where seats were provided for family of shoppers, and literally sat there for 30 minutes until the immediate throbbing of my feet subsided.

then finally, i walked my way home. after a Peck stop of course - got some Gnocchi Romana

the good thing is, there was an english speaking older couple who were lost, tourist map in hand. so i stopped to help them find their way.

my feet have stopped hurting so, but i'm still sooo tired. tomorrow might be a light day.

oh my Amsterdam B&B cancelled on me after i changed my reservation dates (even though they said no penalties if more than 15 days before the stay) - they just told me all of a sudden they have no availability (when they were available for more days, and now i wanted to shorten the stay, how can they run out of the day when i was going to occupy that room???)
so i bit the bullet and bought my hotel online.

i also just bought my 3 nights in Roma for next tues-friday. everyones warned me how much walking there is there, with my oncoming cold, i might just try to take it easy. from everyone's stories, one can never get 'all' they wanted to do done in Rome anyway.

can't wait to see Nat in Lugano this weekend, going there friday afternoon, coming back to Milan around noon Monday.

Fresh homemade brunch

2009-04-29T02:19:00.001-07:00

TW has school for half a day today, so I woke up and did the dishes, got the chicken soup boiling on the stove now, watching an old episode of Project Runway while planning the day's adventure.. And waiting for either TW or TH's updates.

Meanwhile I made a fresh caprese salad - buffalo mozarella with sicilian tomatos, basil from the balcony, olive oil and aged modena balsamico... Everything tastes fresh and yum! Still hungry, made a slice of toast and cut a hole from the center and cracked an egg in it, cook until soft boiled egg, top with fresh goat cheese... So yummy.

-- Post From My iPhone

Princi & Fabio

2009-04-28T15:54:00.001-07:00

TH still had a fever, so I walked with TW near the Duomo and stopped by Princi. Princi was a highly recommended bakery the TW hadn't tried yet...

We walked in and the heavenly smell of freshly made woodfire oven bread fills the place. The counter ran along the entire depth of the place, I wish I can eat all the stuff in it!!! I went with lasagna and TW got foccacia and raspberry tart for her husband's snack.the cheese was smooth and just rich but not overwhelming - the best lasagna I've ever had!

TW went to hospital to visit, and I roamed the streets of downtown on my own.

On TW's recommendation, I found my way to Peck... Think of the awesomest gormet grocery store, multiply the awesomeness by 10 and that's what Peck is. The absolute most decadent, fresh, fancy food and raw ingredients! Overwhelmed by all the choices - and luckily still stuffed with Princi lasagna, I escaped Peck with only a pistacio macaron and a marron glacé. Best macaron ever! I'm going to dive into the martin glacé after this blog post.

I found my way back to La Renaisente, the fancy department store, and somehow got an appointment with a Dior makeup artist. Fabio ended up putting over 20 different products on me, granted, he did a great job but it's more makeup than I ever would wear... I think I disappointed him though when I left without a purchase and we parted without him getting a comission!

Since I was all done up, I took myself to the Gucci cafe for an espresso and some people watching... At least I can afford a coffee there! I decided to join the flocks of tourists marching into the numerous brandname stores.... Hey I look more like I can afford this stuff than I usually do with all that makeup.

I was in Louis Vuitton, and observed a bunch of tourists (men) with china passports - they bought purses and wallets as if these were free!!!! At least 3 handbags and 2 wallets were bought in a few minutes time.

It was too cold for gelato so on my way back I stopped by Peck and got some riso alla mare, which TW and I had for dinner along with pan-heated leftover fish.

TH updated that the docs took temperature this evening and it's normal. If this keeps up, he should be able to come home sometime tomorrow. Besides dining at home, I have no real plans for tomorrow. I have a few tourist maps to check out, so I might wander back to my castle and see what other cool stuff is out there. I still have to find my way to the fashion district as well...

-- Post From My iPhone

Purple rain

2009-04-28T15:30:00.001-07:00

Monday morning we went to do groceries so TW can bring snacks for her husband... We went to the butcher and the 2 local markets. When TW went to the hospital to visit TH, I decided to go to an english speaking Aveda salon to do my hair.

Finding the place was easy, only a sprinkle of drizzle in the air. I arrived at 1pm and Simone/Simon - the English speaking owner greeted me. I decided to get my hair darkened overall - being Chinese I never had the thick raven black lucious hair, so I wanted black with some dark blue highlights. We designed the highlights to be rather subtle anyway.

Tonia was my colorist, she bleached the highlight parts and gave me a beautiful dark shade as my new base color. After 4 hours, Stephan was finally drying my hair....

Instead of blue, my highlights came out bleached blond! I looked into the big mirrors and saw Cruella Deville from 101 Dalmatians! Of course, the hairdressers saw it too. The owner assured me they would fix it after my cut. Round 2, we did a purple color which did grab onto the bleached hair. At the end of 6 hours, they didn't even give me a discount!!! But I no longer had blond 'highlights' so it could've been worse.

My beautifully blowdried hair stood no chance within a few minutes of me stepping out into the pouring rain... In San jose, I drove everywhere, and never used am umbrella since it was always only a few steps from my car to my destinations. I forgot that I was walking everywhere.

So in a hurry to get home and in an attempt to try to keep my hair 'done', I briskly walked 7 blocks until I saw unfamiliar surrounds.... Oh rats, now I'm lost! I pulled out my little tourist map of downtown Milano and tried to find where I was. After doing this a few times, the map paper started to melt in the rain.

Thankfully I passed by a bookstore, so I walked in and got a laminated copy of the city map and asked the cashier to locate us on the map. After stopping 2 more pedestrians, I found my way back on track. By this point I was drenched but couldn't care less.... I actually stood there and laughed as I was 3 steps away from being COMPLETELY splashed by an oncoming bus - I promised you the driver put his heart into aiming for me!

When I was close to home, I passed by a gelateria TW had once recommended, and since I only had half a croissant the whole day, I rewarded myself with a grapfruit sorbet made with muscat wine...

All in all an adventure - I'm still nursing a slight sore throat and trying to fight it with hot tea these two days. My purple highlights are looking bluish in some angles. But to the salon's credit, none of the haircolors ran onto my clothes in the rain.

-- Post From My iPhone

Sunday is a day of rest

2009-04-28T15:05:00.001-07:00

Apparently most of Milano is closed Sundays... In the morning TW and I walked to the tram stop and she went to see TH at the hospital. I was tired and ended up hanging out at home, it was pouring out, so it was a slow day - which my feet totally needed. I think I spent the remainder of my day in my pjs!

TW came home tired but said TH was doing ok, docs think they might discharge him Monday.

TW made a veggie frittata with fresh mozarella and goat cheese - I've never had cheese as good as they've got here, and fear everything will pale in comparison in the future.

Later that night TH updated his wife, he had a 100 degree fever and they won't be able to release him on Monday.

-- Post From My iPhone

How to scale fish

2009-04-28T14:20:00.000-07:00

Sunday night TW and I came home, quiet without her husband and nothing we can do until the next day for his status... We had to clean or freeze the fish from that morning's market, and considering TW's mind is justifiably occupied, I volunteered to take care of it. Chopped the heads and tails and gutted them, which wasn't bad - but the worst part is scaling the fish- yuck!!!! I hate the feeling of fish scale on my skin, but I braved it for the greater good.

We had plenty of fresh veg at home, so I threw some of it together and it turned out to be a really good yellow pepper salsa. Besides the little bones in the fish, I loved the dish. We made a quick veggie stew with some veg that needs to be eaten, and had it over pasta so it turned into a decent meal afterall.

But I plan to buy my fish cleaned and scaled in the future!!!!!!

-- Post From My iPhone

2nd day in Milano(

2009-04-28T02:12:00.000-07:00

The Husband and Wife took me to the typical saturday at the farmers' market - crazy sensory overload! so much produce, so fresh and full of life...
italian life is very vocal, everyone is yelling, shouting or pushing...
(limited access to internet on borrowed laptop time at my friend's place, i'll try to get this blog post first and upload pictures another time)

in any case, i shadowed them in silent awe around the market... but the cheap prices and amble fresh veg and fruits took me by surprise...
the most intimidating and interesting were the fish stalls... 90% of the customers were men, and with good reason. being a woman, however vocal, just don't get you enough attention at these stalls... i witness 2 women with their children yelling at each other and cursing because one got service with her baby in hand and the other was yelling it was unfair because she had a child too (her child was like 10 years old).

we also walked by the tuscan wine shop where for 2.90 euros, one can get a whole bottle refilled with Tuscan wine - good drinking wine too.

dropped off groceries at home, we realized we were hungry, so we went to restaurant Gusto and had a panino. this place was vetted by my friends as the best panino place in Milano, and I tried the Turfuto panino, which consisted of prociutto, tomatoes, spinach, brie and truffle oils - it was delicious. the portion was small enough i wolfed down my own panino - in california, i never finish a sandwich of my own at Whole Foods...

we came back to the house and The Wife needed a nap (she had been putting in long hours at school the whole week) so the plan was for The Husband to show me around for a bit.

(ok, I'm going to use abbreviations TW as The Wife and TH as The Husband to save me typing and time).

TH said he has tummyache, so i told them not to worry, i remember the way to the Duomo from last night's long walk, and i would fill in some shopping in there and keep myself occupied. i'd be back by 5 or 6pm and have dinner with them - we bought fish at the farmers' market so TH was going to cook us a nice meal.

i took myself to the Duomo, both frustrating and challenging but also fun to figure out how to retrace the route from last night. Growing up in Montreal, i had learned to love exploring a walkable city (as supposed to a drivable one like san jose or san francisco), so it brings back memories of summer days strolling downtown Montreal.

i did some shopping, i walked into the main downtown church (the Duomo), i even found my way back to the best gelato place - Grom and had apple, lemon and cream di grom gelato. stood there and watched a protest parade that gathered in the middle of the piazza right in front of the Duomo and saw the riot police on guard watching it unfold from afar (apparently they always get into riot gear and almost never does it actually become a riot of any kind).

tired, but without any tickets for the tram back (and forgotten the word for 'ticket' which you can only buy at the Tabacchis which are not everywhere and opens also at odd hours) - I managed to push myself to walk all the way back home after 5 hours of mostly walking. (i only sat when inside the church, feet already hurting in the morning from the unadjusted amount of walking the night before).

a) i had to walk off my 3 scoops of gelato
b) i hadn't mustered up enough courage to go attempt to buy 'tickets' for the tram yet
c) i also forgot which tram line goes straight to the house

when i got to the building about to ring the doorbell i saw a note to "Amy" stuck on by tape there...
turns out TW left me a note saying "TH had surgery, call me when you get this message"

turns out TH's stomach pain needed emergency surgery after they consulted an american doctor and went to the ER of a reputable hospital.

they took out his appendix, his wife was worried although she understood italian, she didn't really speak enough, plus this all happened within the hour after i left the house - they got to the ER, checked him in, talked to the specialist, they readied him for surgery.

now, my debit card was stuck in the house - it being the first full day i was in town, we had not yet covered emergency protocols between us and i didn't have the extra set of keys. i had 20 euros for the cab, if it had cost more i didn't know how i would've gotten to the hospital.

Anyways, i got there, TW was understandably worried but ok overall, and within 10 minutes, TH came out of surgery

we visited him for 15 minutes, then had to leave... this was saturday night, TH was supposed to be able to come home Tuesday...

Sunday day time the hospital thought TH could be released monday instead, Sunday night TH had 100 degree fever, and Monday night he still has a fever, so today is tuesday and he's still there. ETA for release is tomorrow.
I've been home with TW and surprisingly she's held together pretty well. there's an underlying sense of unrest because he's not home yet but we're doing well here...

first evening in Milano

2009-04-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

I'm staying with The Husband and The Wife who graciously let me have the spare bedroom (huge space by the way)... for their protection I shall refer to them as just that.

after a much needed shower and change of clothes, the couple decided to show me around... we walked to many places and i am utterly overwhelmed by the cultural differences...
There was the outlines of an old church that had a socialist group member standing at a 2nd story 'window' leading a Simon-Says type of game, and about 40 people below following his moves to music. a bunch more people crowded around amazed and awed by this, us included...

we picked a place for Appertivo - which is usually between 5:30 and 6:30pm - you buy a drink, and you're entitled to appertizer type of food at the place. the place we went to had excellent spread - tuna pasta salads, rice salads, pasta with various sauces, grilled vegetables, meatballs, flaky dough pie slices..... yum. i had a drink that was MMM champagne with fresh strawberry puree and it was delicious.

After that, we walked around some more, to the Duomo which is the big main church in downtown Milan... we walked to the castle past there and decided we should come back during the day to do the museums there. The Castle was staggeringly beautiful, the courtyard all lit up and looks imposing even today.

then, my friends introduced me to Grom. They had, in the 6 months so far that they've lived here, tried many gelaterias, and Grom is THE BEST. they source all the ingredients to highest standards - from the milk used, to the hazelnut and chocolate, down to the pure water....
I had a scoop of hazelnut gelato, which is the best i've ever tasted...
we finally walked home, and then google-mapped our route because we were unreasonably tired...

turned out we had walked 3.5 miles, which is about 3.3 miles more than i might walk in a given day!

being in california, a car is so essential to getting around, that i miss being in a walking city, that i can walk myself to places and back, no need to worry about traffic and parking... i love it. Montreal is such a city and it's been a while since I get to just explore a city...

(i'm only able to update this on borrowed computer time so look out for sporadic updates, but check FB for photos)

flight to Milano...

2009-04-26T06:25:00.000-07:00

and i thought i was a decently seasoned traveller...

had my bag checked in at British Airway at SFO, the bag weighted exactly 20kg which was the limit... my boarding pass in hand, i managed to 'check in online' to change from a middle seat to a window seat - i thought, it's all going decently well..

10 hour flight - but there was about 20 new movies and a bunch of other media content available on our individual monitors...
drinks cart came by and they offer drinks WITH alcohol for no charge - i'm lucky if i get a small package of pretzels on other flights!

dinner was decent - one can't expect gourmet on the plane, even if one is a food snob. i had the 'tuscan chicken' which was overly sweet and rice that was too soft, but the bread and salad was good and dessert too. best part was the small bottle of wine it came with.

Being a super lightweight drinker, i chucked the wine and passed into a slumber for 3 hours... with 2 hours left, i finally watched Slumdog Millionaire which i loved... another episode or two of some random tv sitcom, and helloooo London!

London seems beautiful, lush and green from the plane - it was actually sunny, which isn't 'typical' i'm told. We arrived 10 minutes to 11am, and my flight out was 12:25pm, so I figured i had ample time...

except once i got off the plane, i realized that i was flying Lufthansa to Milan - and my luggage was in the luggage claim because BA didn't know that I had another leg of my journey.
After asking a few different BA agents, it seems that i had to do things the long way - wait in line for the customs, go pick up my bag from the carousel, and take a tram over to Terminal 2, walk 15 minutes to Lufthansa kiosk to check in my bag there, go through security line again (the bottle of water I bought at SFO and the extra small bottle of wine of course made sure the security agent had to re-swab my backpack) - then ran Home-Alone style to get to my gate.

I made it on time, because boarding was supposed to be at noon - i got there about 12:05. But the plane was running late so we actually boarded at 12:25pm. whew....

Of course, this little Country Mouse was in awe when I landed in Milano... hailing a cab was easy. right near the exit from the airport, an airport shuttle had ran into a car in front of him, they were off to the side of the road making arrangements. This was a preview of the attitude of the kind of driving one was to face daily in Milano.

i had arrived... everything was interesting, Milano is a big city with lots of dense 5+ story buildings where people live, and beautiful balconies that made street scenic.