Hey gang, so we finally accomplished a life long dream to swim across the English Channel, or at least to traverse it by train in one of humankind's greatest engineering feats: The Chunnel. And guess what? It was really anticlimactic. There you are, cruising across French farmland in a high speed train that suddenly goes into a pitch black tunnel for 20 minutes with nothing to see, and boom, you're in the UK, cruising across more farmland. Now if they suddenly screeched to a halt in the Chunnel, made sounds of water rushing in, shot bullet holes in the windows....now that would be interesting. I guess we're just that hard to please.
Anywhoo, we arrived in London and met up with Diane's mom, Eva, so we were once again 5 (remember, Aviva left us in Switzerland to join her band of traveling minstrels). We settled into our cozy little house and hit the town for the next coupla days, with our go-go-Granny. We boated on the Thames, bussed around London-town, went all over by tube, and saw many of the major sites. In Greenwich, we had lunch at an awesome market where you could get just about anything from anywhere in the world....and we did: Ethiopian Vegetarian, Mediterranean fusion, French crepes, sweets, sushi, blah blah blah. We then checked out Greenwich Meantime which was also kinda cool. In the evening we had our first (and for some of us last for this trip) taste of fish and chips. Yum (ish).
Perhaps the most challenging part of our time in London was spent trying to figure out their incoherent public transit fare system. We dare you to even try to figure it out:
The pay as you go Oyster card gets you 10% off the boats, but not if you already got on the boat; and if you have a flat rate travel card, you spend more than the Oyster card, but less than a point to point, but you get 33% off on the boats. And if you are a kid, which is 16 or less, then you pay less than a travel card, but more than an Oyster card, but you can't get the child ticket on the bus so then you have to pay the adult rate. And the boat requires a 5.50 supplement each time you get off, but you can ride the rest of the transit system all day long for one rate...unless it's peak time.
Get it? We certainly did NOT. So a couple of times the credit on our passes was depleted and so they no longer worked, and we were told we had to pay more. But we had this really innocent looking Grandmother with us, who would do her best rendition of bewildered righteous indignation, and we would all get waived on.
Next we all headed up to Edinburgh, Scotland, to meet up with Aviva. As you may know, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival (the largest festival of its kind) was in full swing at the time of our arrival. The place was thick with crowds, and you can't walk two steps without running into a street performance, or people handing out flyers for their performances in theatres all across the city. Our first stop was The Dreamcatchers, the Earl Haig/Claude Watson performance that Aviva was in. It was really special to see the group perform; they were amazing (but hey, we're not biased). Over the days that we were there, we saw a few of the many buskers, who seemed to try to out-do each other when it came to dangerous juggling, i.e., juggling machetes, hatchets, and even chainsaws (yikes, that was scary!). These guys were world-class, and could entertain street crowds in the hundreds for 45 minutes at a time, often effectively dealing with drunken nasty hecklers.
On our second day in Edinburgh, Eva headed back to London, and we did a day-hike up Arthur's seat at the top of the Holyrood mountain, walked along the mountain's edge and came down at Holyrood palace, the Queen's residence when visiting Scotland; although she didn't wanna invite us in, so we just stood in front of the palace in the rain :( We also walked the Royal Mile (the distance between the castle and the palace), and did a free walking tour of Edinburgh, which was amazing (Sandeman tours) and we could actually understand the guide despite the outrageous, but charming accent.
So that's it for this summer. We're now somewhere between Greenland and Iceland, way way up high. See you all soon.
With love,
RANAD
Friday, August 26, 2011
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Paris
This was probably our nicest visit to Paris ever, well...except for our departure, which was insane. More about that later. What made this visit better? Perhaps, that we were sleeping in actual beds this time (at an Ibis), and not on someone's floor; and that we had recommendations on where to eat really well from our friends James and Laurie who had previously lived in the 11th district.
Paris is an incredibly cyclable city, flat and lots of bike lanes that take you everywhere, although sometimes you have to share the lane with maniacal taxi drivers and not-so-maniacal bus drivers; still, it's a tad disconcerting to be riding along and notice that there's a huge bus just behind you trying to squeeze by. On the first day we took a fabulous bike tour (FatTireBikeTours.com). Our British guide, Alex, was funny, knowledgable about politics and history; he gave us gory details about the French Revolution, and the heads that were cut off in Harmony Square (Place de la Concorde). He also taught us tricks to get comfortable riding in Paris traffic, including "total lane domination" where all 20 of us took up an entire lane of traffic, to the honks and insults of the drivers behind us.
On the second day, we rented bikes on our own and made our way across town. The city has over 50,000 bikes that you can rent for 1.70 Euro a day, with automated pick-up and drop-off racks placed conveniently all over. It was lucky that at the very time we were picking up our bikes there was a bicycle maintenance guy right there who showed us how to return the bikes properly (sometimes they don't click in place so easily), to avoid being erroneously charged 150 Euro for failing to return a bike. Let's hope we got it right!
Across Paris, on different days, there are always open air markets that include fruit and vegetable stands, baked goods, and clothing. Outside our hotel, there was an open air market where we picked up lunch for the day, including a whole roasted chicken (which we ate with our fingers outside Notre Dame; very barbaric, but very yummy). On the way to Notre Dame, we got a bit disoriented, and at one point, asked a local where it was. He laughed, told us to look way up, and he pointed right at it, chuckling about "Americans" (it was a bit embarrassing). Later we ended up at the Musée D'Orsay, where we took an English tour of the impressionist painters et al. We could make fun of the guide here, a bit, but we won't.
Our departure from Paris: Seriously messed up! It started out well. We arrived at the train station an hour and a half before our scheduled departure, reserved tickets in hand. We ate lunch, talked, and waited for them to indicate the track number that our train was leaving from. We waited and waited. The departures board clearly stated that track numbers could be posted as late as 15 minutes before departure. And then...15 minutes before departure they announced overhead instead, that this was the final boarding call for our train. We raced around to find out that we had to check-in on the floor above - which was self-evident to everyone else but us. We were repeatedly told, "Vite, vite," by various agents who hustled us through French departures, UK customs and immigration, as well as security. We were scolded by everyone, but particularly by the UK customs and immigration officer who told us, "You're going to another country, you know!" (of note, we've never had to clear customs and immigration in any of the other EU countries we've travelled through). Rob just kept saying to the officers, "Yes Madame, you're right, we're so sorry..." Incredibly, we made it onto the train with about a minute to spare.
We are currently flying across the British country-side on a high speed train. We just emerged from the Chunnel. It took about 20 minutes at a couple hundred klicks an hour. Pretty impressive. Next stop: London.
With love,
RANAD
Paris is an incredibly cyclable city, flat and lots of bike lanes that take you everywhere, although sometimes you have to share the lane with maniacal taxi drivers and not-so-maniacal bus drivers; still, it's a tad disconcerting to be riding along and notice that there's a huge bus just behind you trying to squeeze by. On the first day we took a fabulous bike tour (FatTireBikeTours.com). Our British guide, Alex, was funny, knowledgable about politics and history; he gave us gory details about the French Revolution, and the heads that were cut off in Harmony Square (Place de la Concorde). He also taught us tricks to get comfortable riding in Paris traffic, including "total lane domination" where all 20 of us took up an entire lane of traffic, to the honks and insults of the drivers behind us.
On the second day, we rented bikes on our own and made our way across town. The city has over 50,000 bikes that you can rent for 1.70 Euro a day, with automated pick-up and drop-off racks placed conveniently all over. It was lucky that at the very time we were picking up our bikes there was a bicycle maintenance guy right there who showed us how to return the bikes properly (sometimes they don't click in place so easily), to avoid being erroneously charged 150 Euro for failing to return a bike. Let's hope we got it right!
Across Paris, on different days, there are always open air markets that include fruit and vegetable stands, baked goods, and clothing. Outside our hotel, there was an open air market where we picked up lunch for the day, including a whole roasted chicken (which we ate with our fingers outside Notre Dame; very barbaric, but very yummy). On the way to Notre Dame, we got a bit disoriented, and at one point, asked a local where it was. He laughed, told us to look way up, and he pointed right at it, chuckling about "Americans" (it was a bit embarrassing). Later we ended up at the Musée D'Orsay, where we took an English tour of the impressionist painters et al. We could make fun of the guide here, a bit, but we won't.
Our departure from Paris: Seriously messed up! It started out well. We arrived at the train station an hour and a half before our scheduled departure, reserved tickets in hand. We ate lunch, talked, and waited for them to indicate the track number that our train was leaving from. We waited and waited. The departures board clearly stated that track numbers could be posted as late as 15 minutes before departure. And then...15 minutes before departure they announced overhead instead, that this was the final boarding call for our train. We raced around to find out that we had to check-in on the floor above - which was self-evident to everyone else but us. We were repeatedly told, "Vite, vite," by various agents who hustled us through French departures, UK customs and immigration, as well as security. We were scolded by everyone, but particularly by the UK customs and immigration officer who told us, "You're going to another country, you know!" (of note, we've never had to clear customs and immigration in any of the other EU countries we've travelled through). Rob just kept saying to the officers, "Yes Madame, you're right, we're so sorry..." Incredibly, we made it onto the train with about a minute to spare.
We are currently flying across the British country-side on a high speed train. We just emerged from the Chunnel. It took about 20 minutes at a couple hundred klicks an hour. Pretty impressive. Next stop: London.
With love,
RANAD
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
La Suisse!
Switzerland 2011
Switzerland: A nightmare for the lactose intolerant. The chocolate, the fondue, the croissants, the café au lait, the Gruyère.....delicious, but difficult to manage for those of us with sensitive stomachs. Truth is, we've eaten better here than in Italy, which we can't quite figure out. Ideas anybody?
So we took the train from Milano to Lausanne where we settled in at a hotel not far from the neighbourhood we lived in seven years ago. We spent the next day and a half wandering around all our old haunts and were all a bit over-whelmed at various points. We went to the kids' old schools, our old apartment, and even the candy store the kids used to stop at on the way home from school. We also picnicked at the lakeshore (Ouchy), where we had a better view of the French Alps and Evian than we've ever had. We went back to one of the kids' favourite restaurants, Chez Nif, which sadly is now a Starbucks, a crazy-expensive Starbucks, i.e., $10.00 for a latte!
We had forgotten just how beautiful Lausanne is, and also a number of things have changed - like they now have no smoking laws, which means that you can actually taste your food when you eat at cafés and restaurants. More things seem to be open on Sundays; they don't seem to be advertising Canadian horse meat in restaurants as much as they used to (seriously, we used to be amazed by all the "cheval canadien" that was sold here). And, the new ultra-right wing party here is in full gear advertising "Stopper L'immigration Massive" and What face do you want Switzerland to have? - depicting exclusively white European faces. Still, the city seems to actually be a bit more diverse than it was seven years ago.
We spent a lovely evening with Diane's colleague, Elisabeth, and her family at their house in the country, and then the next morning, we dropped off Aviva at the train station, as she was heading off to London, via Geneva airport, to join her troupe that is heading up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival shortly. We'll be meeting up with her there later on.
We were all set to head up into the mountains for two days of hiking, when we noticed how red and swollen Noah's right eye had become. Coincidentally our hotel was a block and a half from the Opthamological Hospital so off went Noah and Rob to get his eye checked out. What would a RANAD vacation be without a trip to the hospital? Turns out it was an infected stye, and he was given a script and we were headed out of town by noon.
We drove up to the highest altitude village in all of Switzerland, Chandolin, and stayed at a lovely inn (Plampras - say that 10 times fast). From here we did two hikes, the second of which was toward Arpitettaz. So about that hike. It was recommended to us by Elisabeth's über buff daughter, Juliette, who told us it was going to be challenging, i.e. for healthy but inexperienced hikers. She also said that we were just doing the first day of a two day hike, the second day of which would require a guide. So when we saw the signs warning "expert climbers only," we figured that only applied to day two. Wrongo!! After about an hour of very steep climbing, we hit a section of sheer rock at a 60 degree angle that required you to clamber up, pulling yourself along using these chains that were fastened to the rock. After about three switch backs like this, with much drama and tears from Diane, we arrived at the next section, which was actually at about an 80 degree angle (we are not exaggerating). Aaron and Noah were raring to go, but at this point Rob pulled the plug and said we're all heading back down. We doubled back a short bit, but then Noah found a safer alternate route, which appears to have been a goat path, as we ran into their droppings all along the steep, but grassy incline. At the top we picnicked amidst gorgeous vistas of two different glaciers. We continued on along a ridge and ran into a heard of goats (well actually they were sheep). Broken telephone moment: Diane called ahead to Aaron, "Tell Noah to be careful around the goats, if you get too close they can kick and bite." Aaron said to Noah, "Careful around the goats, if you get too close they can pick a fight."
On the way back down we met up with another group of hikers, and realized we had been taking the wrong path all along! Still, the experience was great, and from above the tree line and the clouds, we got to see the Dent Blanche, the Zinal Rothorn, and the Weisshorn.
Now we're on the TGV (high-speed train) to Paris, holy tamolly, is it ever going fast!
Talk to you later,
RANAD
Switzerland: A nightmare for the lactose intolerant. The chocolate, the fondue, the croissants, the café au lait, the Gruyère.....delicious, but difficult to manage for those of us with sensitive stomachs. Truth is, we've eaten better here than in Italy, which we can't quite figure out. Ideas anybody?
So we took the train from Milano to Lausanne where we settled in at a hotel not far from the neighbourhood we lived in seven years ago. We spent the next day and a half wandering around all our old haunts and were all a bit over-whelmed at various points. We went to the kids' old schools, our old apartment, and even the candy store the kids used to stop at on the way home from school. We also picnicked at the lakeshore (Ouchy), where we had a better view of the French Alps and Evian than we've ever had. We went back to one of the kids' favourite restaurants, Chez Nif, which sadly is now a Starbucks, a crazy-expensive Starbucks, i.e., $10.00 for a latte!
We had forgotten just how beautiful Lausanne is, and also a number of things have changed - like they now have no smoking laws, which means that you can actually taste your food when you eat at cafés and restaurants. More things seem to be open on Sundays; they don't seem to be advertising Canadian horse meat in restaurants as much as they used to (seriously, we used to be amazed by all the "cheval canadien" that was sold here). And, the new ultra-right wing party here is in full gear advertising "Stopper L'immigration Massive" and What face do you want Switzerland to have? - depicting exclusively white European faces. Still, the city seems to actually be a bit more diverse than it was seven years ago.
We spent a lovely evening with Diane's colleague, Elisabeth, and her family at their house in the country, and then the next morning, we dropped off Aviva at the train station, as she was heading off to London, via Geneva airport, to join her troupe that is heading up to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival shortly. We'll be meeting up with her there later on.
We were all set to head up into the mountains for two days of hiking, when we noticed how red and swollen Noah's right eye had become. Coincidentally our hotel was a block and a half from the Opthamological Hospital so off went Noah and Rob to get his eye checked out. What would a RANAD vacation be without a trip to the hospital? Turns out it was an infected stye, and he was given a script and we were headed out of town by noon.
We drove up to the highest altitude village in all of Switzerland, Chandolin, and stayed at a lovely inn (Plampras - say that 10 times fast). From here we did two hikes, the second of which was toward Arpitettaz. So about that hike. It was recommended to us by Elisabeth's über buff daughter, Juliette, who told us it was going to be challenging, i.e. for healthy but inexperienced hikers. She also said that we were just doing the first day of a two day hike, the second day of which would require a guide. So when we saw the signs warning "expert climbers only," we figured that only applied to day two. Wrongo!! After about an hour of very steep climbing, we hit a section of sheer rock at a 60 degree angle that required you to clamber up, pulling yourself along using these chains that were fastened to the rock. After about three switch backs like this, with much drama and tears from Diane, we arrived at the next section, which was actually at about an 80 degree angle (we are not exaggerating). Aaron and Noah were raring to go, but at this point Rob pulled the plug and said we're all heading back down. We doubled back a short bit, but then Noah found a safer alternate route, which appears to have been a goat path, as we ran into their droppings all along the steep, but grassy incline. At the top we picnicked amidst gorgeous vistas of two different glaciers. We continued on along a ridge and ran into a heard of goats (well actually they were sheep). Broken telephone moment: Diane called ahead to Aaron, "Tell Noah to be careful around the goats, if you get too close they can kick and bite." Aaron said to Noah, "Careful around the goats, if you get too close they can pick a fight."
On the way back down we met up with another group of hikers, and realized we had been taking the wrong path all along! Still, the experience was great, and from above the tree line and the clouds, we got to see the Dent Blanche, the Zinal Rothorn, and the Weisshorn.
Now we're on the TGV (high-speed train) to Paris, holy tamolly, is it ever going fast!
Talk to you later,
RANAD
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Italy 2011 continued
Italy 2011, continued
So after Aaron was released on bail, we--
OK good, now we have your attention.
Our new landlady for the house we rented just outside of Florence, was extremely kind, but had a penchant for giving us "Dora the Explorer" style directions. For example, "turn left at the white van" (which was no longer there), "if this works, finish the road and then turn left", "go across the river, which isn't a river", etc. Add to this, she spelled the name of her town wrong, so our GPS could not recognize it. Also on the way there, we passed our first automated toll booth. The toll was 2 Euros. There was an "attendant" standing next to the toll booth, who kindly took our 10 Euro bill, inserted it in the machine, and gave us back 6 Euro. Now we're no mathematicians, but we have a hunch that he pocketed 2 Euros for himself. Perhaps the fact that he was in jeans and a t-shirt shoulda been a tip off to us that he was up to no good.
Somehow we got to our house and settled in fine. Our landlady took us back into town and brought us to a community dinner hosted by Casa de Poppolo. All across Italy there are these community clubs created by various socialist/communist parties. On the way in we saw many signs and communist posters from a different era, and even more current stuff too. The meal was very homey, with picnic table type seating, and loud families all around us. It was lovely.
The next day we headed off to Lucca where we rented bikes and rode on top of the walls of the city. Just to clarify, the city walls are very thick (15 meters wide), and have been turned into a park that you can bike or stroll on. We also relaxed in the park and read aloud our book, Brave New World.
Florence: the first day there was a tad overwhelming. The place is flooded with tourists and it was almost impossible to walk anywhere without being accosted by Schnochus venders (definition of Schnochus: crap that people sell to tourists); E.g., "10 Euro authentic paintings by Leonardo Davinci." Near the end of the day, we took a tour of the Santa Maria del Fiori and all climbed up the Duomo, including Diane whose fear of heights was relatively contained that day....she only asked a few times "What if there's an earthquake?" and when Rob reassured her, "This building has been standing for over 600 years," she replied, "Oh no! That's really really old, the railings could break". We were all rewarded for the 450 step trek with amazing views from the galleries and from the top of the Duomo. The next day we went on a tour of the Uffizi with an amazing Dutch tour guide named Klaus (artviva.com) who basically taught us Renaissance Art History 101. We went to the Academia to see Michaelangelo's David, with a different tour guide who must have missed her calling as a host of a children's TV show (she was super enthusiastic and cutesy) although the information was excellent, and at the end of the day, we got to stand in the presence of the David, very impressive. That day we learned that Boticelli's "Birth of Venus" was commissioned to hang in a 14 year-old boy's bedroom. If that's true, then as Aviva pointed out later, The David shoulda been commissioned for a 14 year-old girl's bedroom!
Dinner that evening was one of our funnest meals because we made it ourselves back at the lovely house we were renting; linguine with porcini mushrooms and tomatoes with basil from the garden.
A word on Gelato: It only takes one of us to convince the rest that we NEED to have gelato. Usually we've been able to keep it to once every one to two days. Usually.
Cinque Terre. We now understand why people say this place should be on your Bucket List. We did a 3 hour hike with spectacular vistas, winding through three of the five towns here, ending up at the beach at the end of the day. Oh, and we scored a free meal here too, although not on purpose: At the hotel, we had our worst meal ever in Italy - boiled flavourless vegetable mush, potatoes from a bag fried in reused oil, you get the picture. At the end, we politely let them know that we were not impressed and they refused to accept our money. On the last night here we had great pizzas and ended again with Nutella Pizza. Yum.
Now we're on a super high-tech train headed for Switzerland, enjoying spectacular views of the lakes and the alps, and trying to behave ourselves, but that's not really possible.
With love,
RANAD
So after Aaron was released on bail, we--
OK good, now we have your attention.
Our new landlady for the house we rented just outside of Florence, was extremely kind, but had a penchant for giving us "Dora the Explorer" style directions. For example, "turn left at the white van" (which was no longer there), "if this works, finish the road and then turn left", "go across the river, which isn't a river", etc. Add to this, she spelled the name of her town wrong, so our GPS could not recognize it. Also on the way there, we passed our first automated toll booth. The toll was 2 Euros. There was an "attendant" standing next to the toll booth, who kindly took our 10 Euro bill, inserted it in the machine, and gave us back 6 Euro. Now we're no mathematicians, but we have a hunch that he pocketed 2 Euros for himself. Perhaps the fact that he was in jeans and a t-shirt shoulda been a tip off to us that he was up to no good.
Somehow we got to our house and settled in fine. Our landlady took us back into town and brought us to a community dinner hosted by Casa de Poppolo. All across Italy there are these community clubs created by various socialist/communist parties. On the way in we saw many signs and communist posters from a different era, and even more current stuff too. The meal was very homey, with picnic table type seating, and loud families all around us. It was lovely.
The next day we headed off to Lucca where we rented bikes and rode on top of the walls of the city. Just to clarify, the city walls are very thick (15 meters wide), and have been turned into a park that you can bike or stroll on. We also relaxed in the park and read aloud our book, Brave New World.
Florence: the first day there was a tad overwhelming. The place is flooded with tourists and it was almost impossible to walk anywhere without being accosted by Schnochus venders (definition of Schnochus: crap that people sell to tourists); E.g., "10 Euro authentic paintings by Leonardo Davinci." Near the end of the day, we took a tour of the Santa Maria del Fiori and all climbed up the Duomo, including Diane whose fear of heights was relatively contained that day....she only asked a few times "What if there's an earthquake?" and when Rob reassured her, "This building has been standing for over 600 years," she replied, "Oh no! That's really really old, the railings could break". We were all rewarded for the 450 step trek with amazing views from the galleries and from the top of the Duomo. The next day we went on a tour of the Uffizi with an amazing Dutch tour guide named Klaus (artviva.com) who basically taught us Renaissance Art History 101. We went to the Academia to see Michaelangelo's David, with a different tour guide who must have missed her calling as a host of a children's TV show (she was super enthusiastic and cutesy) although the information was excellent, and at the end of the day, we got to stand in the presence of the David, very impressive. That day we learned that Boticelli's "Birth of Venus" was commissioned to hang in a 14 year-old boy's bedroom. If that's true, then as Aviva pointed out later, The David shoulda been commissioned for a 14 year-old girl's bedroom!
Dinner that evening was one of our funnest meals because we made it ourselves back at the lovely house we were renting; linguine with porcini mushrooms and tomatoes with basil from the garden.
A word on Gelato: It only takes one of us to convince the rest that we NEED to have gelato. Usually we've been able to keep it to once every one to two days. Usually.
Cinque Terre. We now understand why people say this place should be on your Bucket List. We did a 3 hour hike with spectacular vistas, winding through three of the five towns here, ending up at the beach at the end of the day. Oh, and we scored a free meal here too, although not on purpose: At the hotel, we had our worst meal ever in Italy - boiled flavourless vegetable mush, potatoes from a bag fried in reused oil, you get the picture. At the end, we politely let them know that we were not impressed and they refused to accept our money. On the last night here we had great pizzas and ended again with Nutella Pizza. Yum.
Now we're on a super high-tech train headed for Switzerland, enjoying spectacular views of the lakes and the alps, and trying to behave ourselves, but that's not really possible.
With love,
RANAD
Friday, August 12, 2011
Italy 2011
How do you know when you're in Italy? Maybe it's when the guy in front of you in the Budapest airport. starts yelling and gesticulating madly about his baggage surcharges and looks to the heavens and exclaims "Madonna Mia"! As most people know you're baggage must be a certain weight on these cheapo airlines, otherwise they fine you! He obviously never got the memo. On the plane, the flight attendant who spoke over the PA system, had a striking resemblance to a sex phone operator. Her overly breathy voice, drawling Hungarian accent, the occasional giggle as she told us where the emergency exits were, and the rhythmic punctuated pauses didn't exactly inspire confidence in airline safety. Upon arriving at the apartment/bed and breakfast where we stayed in Rome, in typical RANAD fashion we managed to set off the alarm for the entire apartment building. Thankfully, Alessandro, our host, wasn't fazed by it, and we couldn't actually hear it from the apartment.
After a delicious Italian coffee and Nutella bread, we headed out to spend a day at the beach. On our way out, we picked up cheese at a cheese shop, fruit at a fruit stand, bread at a bread store, you get the idea... Remarkably, the Roman rapid transit system takes you right to the coast for only 1.5 € each. At the beach, we swam, had a picnic, read and lazed about. We successfully ignored the pesky beach vendors, but the couple next to us weren't so lucky and got to see his entire kit layed out for them. On the way back from the beach, we had to wait for about twenty minutes for a bus. When the bus finally arrived, it was packed to the gills with other passengers. But we squished our way on anyway. Each of us were completely wedged between a mix of each other and complete strangers, to the point where Aviva didn't have to hold on to a railing or even support her own weight. And just when we thought you couldn't possibly fit more people on, the bus driver pulled over and picked up more passengers. The people at the back of the bus were throwing there hands up in the air and shouting "Basta! Basta!" (Enough! Enough!) Thankfully, we arrived at the station safely and headed back to Rome.
After a supper with an unplanned, uninvited accordion performance, we started walking around aimlessly looking for gelato. Upon asking some Italians for directions, they proclaimed "We live in Rome, and we're going for Gelato too. You should come with us!" So we did! And boy are we glad because they brought us to an amazing artisanal place, translated every flavour for us, and let us tell you, it was awesome gelato!
The next day we went on a tour of ancient Rome with our art historian guide, Silvia. She was like an encyclopedia of ancient everything! We saw the Colosseum, the Foro Romano, and where the Vesta Virgins lived. (Rob momentarily thought she said vespa virgins, so now every time we think of them, we can't help but imagine nuns on mopeds).
For dinner that evening, Aaron ordered ravioli stuffed with ricotta and pistachio. His first bite revealed some salty ground meat inside. When we complained to the waitress she looked aghast and asked if he was a vegetarian. To keep things simple, we said yes, and he ordered a veggie pasta. This being Italy, it took a while to come, so a very hungry Aaron had to sneak bites of Rob's meat dish whenever the wait-staff was out of the tiny dining area.
Okay, now we digress to list the top seven most peculiar vehicular behaviours we've witnessed in Italy thus far:
1) Man riding bicycle along highway without helmet, talking on cellphone.
2) Two year old child standing on front passenger seat of a moving car. Empty car seat in back.
3) Mother with two small children riding on moped.
4) Parked car with shirtless man and woman in car. Condoms strewn about outside.
5) Woman on moped, talking on cell phone headset, wildly gesticulating.
6) Motorcyclists everywhere weaving in and out between cars on the high way as if in video game.
7) Double solid yellow line on high way = Teeny VIP lane just for motorcyclists going in either direction.
Now on to Amalfi! Well first let's talk about the car rental. While Diane and Rob waited in line, they were kissing each other sweetly. The agent noticed and they stopped, bashfully. The agent smiled and said, "No no, don't ever stop. It's wonderful! Have fun in Italy." And she proceeded to give us a major upgrade on our car rental.
Our first night in Amalfi, in a town called Meta, our hosts recommended a local pizzzeria, where, literally all they serve is pizza; including (we're not kidding here) Nutella pizza for dessert. Each pizza was served on its own individual cookie sheet. It was extremely yum!
The following day we hiked up Vesuvius; an impressive volcano that is now dormant. Noah, taking a water bottle for himself, decided he would go ahead around the rim of the crater, but, tantalized by the vista, he didn't notice the "Access Prohibited" sign. After reaching a parking lot instead, he decided it wasn't interesting and would return back up. Meanwhile, the rest of us, who DID see the "Access Prohibited" sign, were growing a bit nervous, realizing that he must have gone ahead, and were greatly relieved to see him re-surface.
Later we took a tour of Pompeii. It really is remarkable how well preserved it is, especially in comparison to the Foro Romano. We learned that the city had numerous penises carved in stone or sculpted to ward off the evil eye, oh and also to indicate directions to brothels. On the way to dinner that evening, Aviva saw a dead bird (a major phobia of hers) and screamed and crawled on all fours into a gelateria. She has recovered, and they have thankfully removed the dead bird.
The next day our hosts sent us on the Malacoccola, one of the famous hikes, high up in the hills of the Sorrentine peninsula, from where we could see the sea on both coasts. If we could get a euro for every time we got lost and had to ask for directions from a local, we would have enough money to buy Diane a new iphone. (more about that in a moment). We ended up in Sorrento that night for dinner. It was a bit too packed with tourists, but still gorgeous.
On our last morning in Amalfi, we went to the beach for an early morning swim. We all had a lovely time, splashing in the waves while Diane took pictures with her iphone. Unfortunately, she somehow managed to drop her iphone in the ocean. It is currently recovering, but in critical condition, perhaps chronically impaired. We're not sure if it'll make it.
With love,
RANAD
How do you know when you're in Italy? Maybe it's when the guy in front of you in the Budapest airport. starts yelling and gesticulating madly about his baggage surcharges and looks to the heavens and exclaims "Madonna Mia"! As most people know you're baggage must be a certain weight on these cheapo airlines, otherwise they fine you! He obviously never got the memo. On the plane, the flight attendant who spoke over the PA system, had a striking resemblance to a sex phone operator. Her overly breathy voice, drawling Hungarian accent, the occasional giggle as she told us where the emergency exits were, and the rhythmic punctuated pauses didn't exactly inspire confidence in airline safety. Upon arriving at the apartment/bed and breakfast where we stayed in Rome, in typical RANAD fashion we managed to set off the alarm for the entire apartment building. Thankfully, Alessandro, our host, wasn't fazed by it, and we couldn't actually hear it from the apartment.
After a delicious Italian coffee and Nutella bread, we headed out to spend a day at the beach. On our way out, we picked up cheese at a cheese shop, fruit at a fruit stand, bread at a bread store, you get the idea... Remarkably, the Roman rapid transit system takes you right to the coast for only 1.5 € each. At the beach, we swam, had a picnic, read and lazed about. We successfully ignored the pesky beach vendors, but the couple next to us weren't so lucky and got to see his entire kit layed out for them. On the way back from the beach, we had to wait for about twenty minutes for a bus. When the bus finally arrived, it was packed to the gills with other passengers. But we squished our way on anyway. Each of us were completely wedged between a mix of each other and complete strangers, to the point where Aviva didn't have to hold on to a railing or even support her own weight. And just when we thought you couldn't possibly fit more people on, the bus driver pulled over and picked up more passengers. The people at the back of the bus were throwing there hands up in the air and shouting "Basta! Basta!" (Enough! Enough!) Thankfully, we arrived at the station safely and headed back to Rome.
After a supper with an unplanned, uninvited accordion performance, we started walking around aimlessly looking for gelato. Upon asking some Italians for directions, they proclaimed "We live in Rome, and we're going for Gelato too. You should come with us!" So we did! And boy are we glad because they brought us to an amazing artisanal place, translated every flavour for us, and let us tell you, it was awesome gelato!
The next day we went on a tour of ancient Rome with our art historian guide, Silvia. She was like an encyclopedia of ancient everything! We saw the Colosseum, the Foro Romano, and where the Vesta Virgins lived. (Rob momentarily thought she said vespa virgins, so now every time we think of them, we can't help but imagine nuns on mopeds).
For dinner that evening, Aaron ordered ravioli stuffed with ricotta and pistachio. His first bite revealed some salty ground meat inside. When we complained to the waitress she looked aghast and asked if he was a vegetarian. To keep things simple, we said yes, and he ordered a veggie pasta. This being Italy, it took a while to come, so a very hungry Aaron had to sneak bites of Rob's meat dish whenever the wait-staff was out of the tiny dining area.
Okay, now we digress to list the top seven most peculiar vehicular behaviours we've witnessed in Italy thus far:
1) Man riding bicycle along highway without helmet, talking on cellphone.
2) Two year old child standing on front passenger seat of a moving car. Empty car seat in back.
3) Mother with two small children riding on moped.
4) Parked car with shirtless man and woman in car. Condoms strewn about outside.
5) Woman on moped, talking on cell phone headset, wildly gesticulating.
6) Motorcyclists everywhere weaving in and out between cars on the high way as if in video game.
7) Double solid yellow line on high way = Teeny VIP lane just for motorcyclists going in either direction.
Now on to Amalfi! Well first let's talk about the car rental. While Diane and Rob waited in line, they were kissing each other sweetly. The agent noticed and they stopped, bashfully. The agent smiled and said, "No no, don't ever stop. It's wonderful! Have fun in Italy." And she proceeded to give us a major upgrade on our car rental.
Our first night in Amalfi, in a town called Meta, our hosts recommended a local pizzzeria, where, literally all they serve is pizza; including (we're not kidding here) Nutella pizza for dessert. Each pizza was served on its own individual cookie sheet. It was extremely yum!
The following day we hiked up Vesuvius; an impressive volcano that is now dormant. Noah, taking a water bottle for himself, decided he would go ahead around the rim of the crater, but, tantalized by the vista, he didn't notice the "Access Prohibited" sign. After reaching a parking lot instead, he decided it wasn't interesting and would return back up. Meanwhile, the rest of us, who DID see the "Access Prohibited" sign, were growing a bit nervous, realizing that he must have gone ahead, and were greatly relieved to see him re-surface.
Later we took a tour of Pompeii. It really is remarkable how well preserved it is, especially in comparison to the Foro Romano. We learned that the city had numerous penises carved in stone or sculpted to ward off the evil eye, oh and also to indicate directions to brothels. On the way to dinner that evening, Aviva saw a dead bird (a major phobia of hers) and screamed and crawled on all fours into a gelateria. She has recovered, and they have thankfully removed the dead bird.
The next day our hosts sent us on the Malacoccola, one of the famous hikes, high up in the hills of the Sorrentine peninsula, from where we could see the sea on both coasts. If we could get a euro for every time we got lost and had to ask for directions from a local, we would have enough money to buy Diane a new iphone. (more about that in a moment). We ended up in Sorrento that night for dinner. It was a bit too packed with tourists, but still gorgeous.
On our last morning in Amalfi, we went to the beach for an early morning swim. We all had a lovely time, splashing in the waves while Diane took pictures with her iphone. Unfortunately, she somehow managed to drop her iphone in the ocean. It is currently recovering, but in critical condition, perhaps chronically impaired. We're not sure if it'll make it.
With love,
RANAD
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Prague and Budapest
July 28, 2011
Hi all,
Skill testing question: Why does Europe smell like pee??
Answer: Hmmm...... I don't know.... Could it be because there are NO PUBLIC RESTROOMS? Yes, we've had our share of restroom-seeking challenges. First of all, we are grateful to Starbucks for being our free peeing haven. It's really hard to get used to the idea of paying 10 Korona (Czeck) or 1 Euro or whatever just to do your business. Now let's talk about Coffee Heaven, a coffee shop with free toilets... or so we thought. In this little joint we enjoyed mediocre coffee, left, came back 15 minutes later to use their washrooms, and got some serious sass - the guy told Rob "next time, go to Starbucks". The next day Diane couldn't hold it any longer and went back to Coffee Heaven to use the washroom. She hustled her way in, making no eye contact as the staff shouted at her "Hey, Hey!!", and on her way out the woman sarcastically said, "Thank you very much", to which Diane replied, "Thank YOU very much!" But our crowning pee saga was when we climbed up to the castle across the Charles Bridge in Prague. Rob dutifully followed the signs that read WC, 10 Korona coin in hand, only to find that it lead him to a locked washroom. Frustrated, we gazed upon the beautiful king's hunting grounds and thought "toilet!" We looked for a nice secluded bush where Rob (and then the rest of us) could finally pee.
So backtracking a bit, we got to Prague from Berlin by train and headed to our pretty apartment. Small notation, we don't speak Czeck and anyone over 50 doesn't seem to speak English. We can't even really read it. So even figuring out how to get tickets for the subway was a bit of a challenge and there have been several situations where we have resorted to mime and animal noises (to avoid eating pork or beef). Thank goodness for the people under 50, who speak pretty decent English, and it turns out you get subway tickets at convenience stores.
In Prague we took a free walking tour with a Canadian guide from Vancouver, who normally works in film, but has been living in Prague for the last year. We were a bit skeptical at first; a free tour of Prague by a Canadian 20-something named Crystal? Yeah right. But it turned out to be an awesome tour and we learned a ton about the city, its history, and the jewish quarter, for example, Hitler's plan to make part of Prague a museum about "the extinct jewish race."
That night we ate at a vegan restaurant near our apartment. It was fine....if you're vegan and enjoy salt and otherwise tasteless food. The next two nights, we opted for the "When in Rome, do as the Romans" policy, and ate awesome roasted duck, stuffed peppers, Czech dumplings, fruit dumplings, palacinky (pronounced palachinky), etc. and the kids shared a stein of Pilsner beer (the town of Pilsen is 45 minutes away).
On our second day in Prague, we went to the Museum of Communism, ironically situated above a MacDonald's and next to a Casino. It's located just off Wencislas square, the heart of the city, where events of the Prague Spring occurred (the failed 1968 uprising that led to two students' suicides in 1969) and the Velvet Revolution (successful pacifist uprising of 1989). Relevant sidetrack: At the top of Wencislas square we had noticed a seemingly out of place roadway with cars tearing along at break-neck speeds, making it dangerous to cross into the square. We discovered in the museum, that the Soviet's had planned this thruway so that they could get tanks into the square rapidly in order to stifle any uprising should need be. The museum itself lost something in translation, but it was interesting to see Cold War artifacts, the video documenting the police beating the student protestors even in 1989, and Soviet propaganda about the West.
On the train from Prague to Budapest, we didn't have to battle off any old people with canes, although to be honest, this time we were a fair bit more pushy getting on and finding seats for ourselves. Once we were safely seated, we proceeded to pull out whole loaves of bread, blocks of cheese, unpeeled carrots, jars of jam and pesto. We then enjoyed a delicious Philipp-Muller meal prepared by yours truly... RANAD!
And then we had to pull it together, because we were staying with Rob's family in Budapest, and they might not have appreciated our savage ways. So we acted normal for three days, while we toured Budapest with the cousins. The timing of our visit also coincided with Rob's uncle's 80th birthday, so on the second day, we all went for an extended and extensive lunch in the country to celebrate Rob's uncle Gyori (pronounced more like Dieu-ree). And then there was dessert. Birthday cake after birthday cake came flying out of the kitchen - dark chocolate cake, white chocolate cake, strawberry short cake, black forest cake, vanilla hazelnut cake, and even diabetic cake! Strong shots of Hungarian liqueur were had by all and pretty soon the language barriers made no difference and we were showing off our best silly faces, singing, and looking at Communist era advertising for sausage - check out the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=9SIJmBd6D3o&feature=youtube_gdata_player
On the two other days, we had our own private tours of Budapest provided by our cousins, Borbala (nicknamed Bori) and Vera, whom we peppered with a gazillion questions, and they did their best to answer almost all of them. In general we managed the language barrier pretty well, as we had Rob's Hungarian, and a number of the family members there spoke English quite well. However, there was at least one noteworthy language mishap. Rob was talking about Toronto to his cousin Judit. He wanted to say that it's a hard city to live in because of all of the frustrating traffic (forgalom), but instead he said that it's a hard city to live in because of all of the frustrating revolutions (foradalom).
On the last day, we had a bit of a wild ride to the airport. We went in two cars - one driven by Rob's cousin, Miki, and the other by Rob's uncle, Gyori (whose 80th birthday it was). It was all going ok, until Gyori missed the cut-off for our terminal. Phone calls were flying between the two cars. Suffice it to say, that it culminated in Gyori pulling a U-turn on a highway, which did solve the problem, but both Diane and Bori had their hands covering their eyes and were saying "Oh my G-d" in their respective languages.
We all got to the airport safely, had a tearful goodbye and really hope to see each other more often than we have till now.
And now we're in Roma!!
We'll post again soon.
Love,
RANAD
Prague and Budapest
Hi all,
Skill testing question: Why does Europe smell like pee??
Answer: Hmmm...... I don't know.... Could it be because there are NO PUBLIC RESTROOMS? Yes, we've had our share of restroom-seeking challenges. First of all, we are grateful to Starbucks for being our free peeing haven. It's really hard to get used to the idea of paying 10 Korona (Czeck) or 1 Euro or whatever just to do your business. Now let's talk about Coffee Heaven, a coffee shop with free toilets... or so we thought. In this little joint we enjoyed mediocre coffee, left, came back 15 minutes later to use their washrooms, and got some serious sass - the guy told Rob "next time, go to Starbucks". The next day Diane couldn't hold it any longer and went back to Coffee Heaven to use the washroom. She hustled her way in, making no eye contact as the staff shouted at her "Hey, Hey!!", and on her way out the woman sarcastically said, "Thank you very much", to which Diane replied, "Thank YOU very much!" But our crowning pee saga was when we climbed up to the castle across the Charles Bridge in Prague. Rob dutifully followed the signs that read WC, 10 Korona coin in hand, only to find that it lead him to a locked washroom. Frustrated, we gazed upon the beautiful king's hunting grounds and thought "toilet!" We looked for a nice secluded bush where Rob (and then the rest of us) could finally pee.
So backtracking a bit, we got to Prague from Berlin by train and headed to our pretty apartment. Small notation, we don't speak Czeck and anyone over 50 doesn't seem to speak English. We can't even really read it. So even figuring out how to get tickets for the subway was a bit of a challenge and there have been several situations where we have resorted to mime and animal noises (to avoid eating pork or beef). Thank goodness for the people under 50, who speak pretty decent English, and it turns out you get subway tickets at convenience stores.
In Prague we took a free walking tour with a Canadian guide from Vancouver, who normally works in film, but has been living in Prague for the last year. We were a bit skeptical at first; a free tour of Prague by a Canadian 20-something named Crystal? Yeah right. But it turned out to be an awesome tour and we learned a ton about the city, its history, and the jewish quarter, for example, Hitler's plan to make part of Prague a museum about "the extinct jewish race."
That night we ate at a vegan restaurant near our apartment. It was fine....if you're vegan and enjoy salt and otherwise tasteless food. The next two nights, we opted for the "When in Rome, do as the Romans" policy, and ate awesome roasted duck, stuffed peppers, Czech dumplings, fruit dumplings, palacinky (pronounced palachinky), etc. and the kids shared a stein of Pilsner beer (the town of Pilsen is 45 minutes away).
On our second day in Prague, we went to the Museum of Communism, ironically situated above a MacDonald's and next to a Casino. It's located just off Wencislas square, the heart of the city, where events of the Prague Spring occurred (the failed 1968 uprising that led to two students' suicides in 1969) and the Velvet Revolution (successful pacifist uprising of 1989). Relevant sidetrack: At the top of Wencislas square we had noticed a seemingly out of place roadway with cars tearing along at break-neck speeds, making it dangerous to cross into the square. We discovered in the museum, that the Soviet's had planned this thruway so that they could get tanks into the square rapidly in order to stifle any uprising should need be. The museum itself lost something in translation, but it was interesting to see Cold War artifacts, the video documenting the police beating the student protestors even in 1989, and Soviet propaganda about the West.
On the train from Prague to Budapest, we didn't have to battle off any old people with canes, although to be honest, this time we were a fair bit more pushy getting on and finding seats for ourselves. Once we were safely seated, we proceeded to pull out whole loaves of bread, blocks of cheese, unpeeled carrots, jars of jam and pesto. We then enjoyed a delicious Philipp-Muller meal prepared by yours truly... RANAD!
And then we had to pull it together, because we were staying with Rob's family in Budapest, and they might not have appreciated our savage ways. So we acted normal for three days, while we toured Budapest with the cousins. The timing of our visit also coincided with Rob's uncle's 80th birthday, so on the second day, we all went for an extended and extensive lunch in the country to celebrate Rob's uncle Gyori (pronounced more like Dieu-ree). And then there was dessert. Birthday cake after birthday cake came flying out of the kitchen - dark chocolate cake, white chocolate cake, strawberry short cake, black forest cake, vanilla hazelnut cake, and even diabetic cake! Strong shots of Hungarian liqueur were had by all and pretty soon the language barriers made no difference and we were showing off our best silly faces, singing, and looking at Communist era advertising for sausage - check out the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watchv=9SIJmBd6D3o&feature=youtube_gdata_player
On the two other days, we had our own private tours of Budapest provided by our cousins, Borbala (nicknamed Bori) and Vera, whom we peppered with a gazillion questions, and they did their best to answer almost all of them. In general we managed the language barrier pretty well, as we had Rob's Hungarian, and a number of the family members there spoke English quite well. However, there was at least one noteworthy language mishap. Rob was talking about Toronto to his cousin Judit. He wanted to say that it's a hard city to live in because of all of the frustrating traffic (forgalom), but instead he said that it's a hard city to live in because of all of the frustrating revolutions (foradalom).
On the last day, we had a bit of a wild ride to the airport. We went in two cars - one driven by Rob's cousin, Miki, and the other by Rob's uncle, Gyori (whose 80th birthday it was). It was all going ok, until Gyori missed the cut-off for our terminal. Phone calls were flying between the two cars. Suffice it to say, that it culminated in Gyori pulling a U-turn on a highway, which did solve the problem, but both Diane and Bori had their hands covering their eyes and were saying "Oh my G-d" in their respective languages.
We all got to the airport safely, had a tearful goodbye and really hope to see each other more often than we have till now.
And now we're in Roma!!
We'll post again soon.
Love,
RANAD
Prague and Budapest
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