Hmmmm, those Italian men!

So Jen and I decided we needed some exercise this morning, and so decided to get up early and go get some. We got up around 6:15 or so, not thinking about the fact that the whole place was still asleep. We left our room, walked downstairs, and found the place very dark and locked looking. Definitely not a 24hour concierge service. Then we hear footsteps. Obviously we've woken someone up. Turns out it's Mossimo, come down to see what's going on probably, maybe he thinks we're going to steal all the wine in the bar.

Mossimo has obviously just rolled out of bed, and is still pulling some of his clothes on. He does have pants on, but his shirt is a button down and not buttoned down. Luckily he's very sweet or those Italian good looks would be a bit too much!

Maybe we'll see George...

I knew George Clooney had an Italian villa on Lake Como, and I even knew a little what it looked like since it was supposedly the really cool house you see in 'Oceans Twelve'. So of course today on the boat on Lake Como I had to look for it. I don't think I saw it but you never knew.

So yesterday we took the train from Venice to Milan, and then from Milan to Como. The train from Venice to Milan was very cheap, surprisingly, only 9.50 euros, which when the vaporetto in Venice cost 5.00 euros I was pretty surprised, but maybe that's why it took nearly 4 hours to get to Milan. Definitely the slow train!

Finally got to Como and we weren't really sure where our hostel was, the directions were pretty basic and said to 'take the funicolare and we are located there'. We didn't know what the funicolare was but figured out it was the cable car that goes up the hillside, across town from the train system. The nice guy at the train station said it was 400 meters but it was more like 4,000 meters. At least it seemed that way. We finally made it there, got on board, and looked up thru the tunnel to the track going nearly straight up the hillside. Of course I'm scared of heights but luckily it was so hazy you couldn't see all that much....

We made it to the top finally and got off the funicolare, but we still didn't know where we were going. Luckily the lady at the gelatto stand knew and pointed us in the right direction.

Our hostel ended up being in 'Brunate', not Como, and 750 meters above Como. Hence the funicolare. Brunate is a very quaint town overlooking Como and Lake Como. It's very picturesque and seems very quiet, so I wonder why nearly every single house or villa had a fence surrounding it completely, a locked gate, and lots of 'watch out for dogs' signs, as well as bars on the first floor windows. Kind of strange. Maybe an old mafia hideout? Brunate also has lots of narrow one way streets, and luckily we didn't get hit by any cars on the way to our hostel.

We are staying at 'Locanda Milano' and it is a really nice place. Mossimo is the guy in charge, and his mother works in the restaurant. After we got there, we decided to go for a walk and found the little local grocery store. The old man running it must have thought the American tourists were funny (or funny looking) because he gave us a free hazelnut chocolate each.

Back to the hostel where we decided to have dinner, only they weren't starting until 7:30. So we decided to have a glass or two of wine since it was only 2.50 euros, what a bargain. Mossimo was behind the bar and he said for us to have a seat and he would bring it to us, so we went outside and sat in the courtyard, where shortly later Mossimo surprised us with olives (I even tried one), tortilla chips, and potato chips. Interesting combo. We hung out outside until it was time for dinner, and then went in and sat down, the only guests in the room. Two German (or swiss?) ladies came down later. The dinner was delicious - I had a pesto pasta (it was called raw pasta, and we finally figured out that meant whole grain or unbleached pasta) and an awesome homemade tiramisu for dinner. It was really good!

After all of that I was pretty tired, so it was time for bed.

Going postal....

So yesterday was our last day in Venice, and we decided we would try and send some of the stuff we had bought home. We knew the post office closed at 2pm and opened at 8:30am. We got all of our stuff together yesterday and traipsed over to the post office and were in line ready to go by 8:30 am. They opened up and luckily we found a very helpful guy who sold us some boxes to pack our stuff. But we still needed something to pack our stuff in and packing tape. I went out and bought 10 newspapers, then Jen left and got packing tape and a nice fat black pen.

The post office most definitely had no AC and and it was not a cold day, and we had to get back to our hotel to check out, so there we were in the middle of the post office, trying to get all our stuff packed up and sweating all over the place. Good times...

Finally finished, it should only take 4 weeks or so...that is if it does not fall off the vaporetto! (The Venetian transportation system = ie the boat that you take like a bus...)

Italy at last...

Ahhh, what can I say about Italy? Bellissimo! Or something like that.

We're here in Venice and it's hot!!! And very beautiful! Maybe 32-33 degrees (celsius that is) so I think that's somewhere between 85 and 95. I know that's a big range but that's what you get for the US Education system!

The keyboards are a bit different so I'll apologize in advance for typos.

This is the first chance we've had for internet so far so I have a lot to write but I don't know how far I'll get.

The flight from London to Rome was late but fine, then it was off to the train station. You would think most major train rides would depart from the central station, so of course that's where we went. Bought our tickets to Venice with a change in Bologna. We didn't make it to the earlier train we wanted so the train we ended up with was to depart at 2:08, and that would be 2:08 AM. Fun. Good thing though that we had a couple hours to kill because we were at the wrong train station. Sitting there while most people were probably leaving, and people would keep asking us "Do you have a place to stay?" "No, we're on the train!" But then luckily someone told us they were closing (didn't know train stations closed, but apparently they do) so got in a taxi to ride to the other train station.

On to the train ride itself. I didn't think it was the right train, as it got to the train station around 1:30, but it said to Bologna, so on we went. Here's the fun part. It was a sleeper train, so had many compartments with 6 seats each. All were taken, of course. Lucky us we got to sit on pull down seats that pulled down from the wall. These seats were located in the single skiny aisleway of the train. So anytime someone walked by, you had to stand up, turn sideways, whatever. That was fun. Then on top of that the man with the food cart (who buys food between 2 and 4 in the morning?) went by every so often, ringing a bell. Ding ding ding ding ding!!! Very annoying!!!!! For him you most definitely had to stand up. So that was 1:30 to 5:45 in the morning. No chance of being comfortable whatsoever. It sucked!!!!

Finally we got to Bologna, changed trains, had our very own seats even. Rode that train until 8:30 or so. We got on when it was empty so I was very surprised when I woke up a little while later and it was totally full, very strange to not even hear any people or notice any of the stops.

Anyway, enough of that.

We're staying just off the Rialto Bridge in Venice, in a nice little hostel we found online. Our first room didn't have a sink or mirror, so we upgraded for the first night and even had our own bathroom, so of course I had to do some laundry. Unfortunately, I didn't rinse my clothes as well as I should have so all my shirts have whitish stains from the laundry powder. So now I will get to do my laundry again at the next place! So they will be extra clean.

Yesterday we went straight to our hotel after getting off the train, they weren't quite ready so we went to a bar in a piazza nearby and had yummy cafe lattes. Very expensive though and I remembered later if you sit down to drink or eat they charge you much more. 4.50 euros for a latte! But it was yummy. Went back to the hostel and got to check in and take a shower, man that felt good! Then off for some exploring, went to St Marks where they encourage you to feed the pidgeons so they are everywhere, and there are a gazillion of them, everywhere!!!!! So of course you have to watch you don't get shat on! or something like that.

Walked and walked and walked, lots of shops everywhere, people, and sunshine. It's very hot here! But that's ok because tomorrow we head to Lake Como for the beach and sunshine and relaxing.

Today we got up and headed to Muranno, which is where the Muranno glass comes from, which is really beautiful. I spent way too much money and now I have way too many things to carry, but that's ok. We went to the post office to try to mail it home, but apparently they quit work at 2pm! That's worse than the US! We stopped at a shop nearby afterwards and the girl there was laughing at my big huge box, so we talked about the post office and she said that everyone who works there is always in a bad mood, it's no fun to go there, so apparently there's not too much different between the Italian post office and the US!

Ok I think that's enough to write for one day, and I'm sure I've lost most of you anyways. Still no chance to upload pictures, and as I need Windows XP and this lovely computer I'm tying on is Windows 98, no such luck!

I'll write again soon!

The British Coast...

So Friday night in Bath after the lovely thai dinner Jen and I headed out with the comedy walk around Bath. It was actually pretty funny and worth the £5. After that we went to the pub below the hotel where I tried a "Buttcomb blond bitter" or something, a light but bitter beer which was actually pretty good. Then I tried a bottled drink of vodka with some berries of some kind which they called an otter pop and it tasted pretty much exactly like the blue raspberry otter pops, kind of funny. Then we headed up to our room and they let us bring some Bailey's with us, which was just slightly different from Bailey's that you'd get in the US but I think better.

On to Saturday...

We started out the day in Bath, planning on taking the train down to Weymouth after breakfast. We were hoping to go to Cornwall but apparently that was still several hours away by train, and the hotel guy in Bath recommended Weymouth as it was only about 2 hours away. We walked over to the train station before breakfast and got our tickets, then headed back to the hotel for a "real English breakfast", whatever that is. We had already checked out of our room so were waiting in the lounge, and said hello to the older gentleman sitting there. He mentioned he was from Cornwall and so we starting chatting a bit. Turns out he was born in Loucaster (?), which is the next town over from where Jen's family is from. Penaxel (?) or something. He said it's a pretty small town with about 500 people or so and only a few shops, so probably not worth a visit, but still fun to find out about it from him.

We talked some more about London and Bath, as he commutes between London, Cornwall, and was buying some property in Bath. A very nice man, very proper British gentleman with the name of John Foster. Told us a little about real estate in London and England and if you buy a place that is "leasehold", you may live there only until the current lease runs out, and the maximum lease sounds like it's 99 years. His daughter was wanting to buy a place in London for about £500,000 with the lease to expire in 10 years, at which point she would have to renew the lease for anywhere from 1-1.5million £. Very interesting. He's a headhunter as it turns out so Jen and him talked a bit about that and we also talked a little politics and his comments about Bush & Clinton were funny - apparently they're used to "naughty boys" over here in London and think nothing of it, so had no problem with Clinton.

Anyway, we talked with John until shortly before 9 where we left for the train to Weymouth. Very pretty English countryside for 2 hours or so and then arrived. The train station put us out almost right in downtown, and we walked just a block or so before reaching the water. Apparently cool weather doesn't bother the Brits as it was about 65 or so and the beach was packed. It was a really nice beach, actually, incredibly soft fine sand, beach chairs available for rent for the day, shops everywhere. Reminded me a little of Seaside, OR, as it was pretty touristy with arcades and so on, but probably a smaller beach and calmer water. We walked around a bit, looked at some of the shops, then took a paddleboat out for half an hour or so. The water was actually not too cold seeming, probably just a bit warmer than Puget Sound. A few people swimming and it looked like the beach was a very gradual slant as there were people standing up in the water but out pretty far from the beach. Probably not quite as quaint and cute as a place in Cornwall might be but at least we got to see the coast, and it was pretty nice.

Back on the train, this time for a 3 hour trip back to London. Followed the coast for a bit passing through some neat looking towns (Poole, can't remember the other places), finally getting into London about 5 or so. Back to our lovely hovel (did I mention it looks like an old hospital, smells mildewy right outside our room, and floors 1-3 have signs that say "protective overalls and respiratory mask required"? very interesting place.) Then out for Indian food as London's supposed to have really good Indian food. Just around the corner from the hostel is Indian restaurant central but those looked a bit sketchy and had too many empty seats so we kept going. Ended up at a place a few minutes walk away and sat down. Ordered our food and were having some wine and in walked an older couple who almost took our bottle of wine with them. They sat down next to us and with their map & camera were very obvious tourists. So we started talking to them and found out they just arrived today from Sarasota, FL, here for their 19th anniversary. Really great couple, "Jack & Jo _____", can't remember their last name right now but really fun to talk to and really cool people.

After dinner back to the hostel but had to stop at Starbucks to buy my London and England giant coffee mugs first. I don't know where they're going to fit in my suitcase that I'm going to pack after this, but I'm sure they'll fit somewhere.

Well that's enough for now! Tomorrow it's one more 1/2 day or so of London and then it's off to Italy tomorrow evening, where hopefully we'll catch the night train to Venice so long as our flight is on time!

Up for a Roman Bath anyone?

Today is Friday and we decided we had to get out of London. Way too many people there. Quick update on Thursday night in London. Jen wanted some fish and chips, a typical London meal. We went to a pub, tried out some beers, Jen get her fish & chips. Wandered around Traflager Square, some great night life. We thought about going to the pub nearby with people from the hostel but decided we just were not into that. Too many piercings and way past my bedtime. (We were in bed by 10 and that's when they were meeting up. I sound old, huh?!)

On to today...quick stop at Starbucks of course (it seems like there's more Starbucks here than in Seattle). Got to the train station and realized taking the train to Bath before 9:30 am was way too expensive (€97!) Decided to take the train to Windsor instead (which is on the way) and say hello to the Queen (but apparently she's in Scotland at the moment). Windsor seems like a really neat town and the Castle is very pretty. One comment on the British people - everyone I've talked to so far is incredibly nice! (Other than the train ticket sales agent here in Bath who just informed me that she is not tourist information.) After Windsor we got back on the train with a trip to Bath (SW England) as the train tickets were much cheaper after 9:30 and it was now after 9:30, and the lovely train ticket sales agent in Windsor was much much nicer than the lady in Bath, and she even managed to get us a RT London to Bath for a mere €43 or something. Got into Bath with no accomodations so walked around trying to find a place first. Apparently it's the last "Bank Holiday weekend" of the year so everything's booked up. Managed to find a nice place with a great guy at the front desk with lots of ideas of stuff to do. Real beds with our very own bathroom in fact. Only brought minimal stuff from London (left it all there) so tomorrow may be a bit grimy but I think it was worth it to come here. After getting checked in we wandered over to the Roman Baths, which are pretty cool but nothing I'd want to swim in nowadays, back to the lovely hotel, then over to "Mai Thai" for dinner, recommended to us by our fun hotel guy, but nothing like Thai food at home. It was ok though, other than when we made the reservation for 6pm they told us we had to be done by 7pm so we were expecting hordes of people, yet we were the only ones (in the lovely backroom they put us in) there! Hmmm, are they trying to tell us something?

Bath is a really neat town, it has a great park near the center which charges admission (only 95p though) but then you get to use their fun chairs and sit in comfort rather than getting your butt wet since it probably just rained. The river runs along the park. Not sure if this river smells like the Thames did in London but at least it's nice to look at. We wandered around a bit after going to the Roman Baths and there seems to be great shopping as well. We did discover that salaries aren't twice what they are in the US, at least according to a placement agency (or something) we walked by advertising various positions. I don't know how people afford to live here!

Now here we are at the Click Cafe or something after being shot down by the Bath train ticket sales agent. We just wanted some advice on towns to go to in Cornwall, but no luck.

Tonight we are going to go to some "Comedy Crawl" or something, and then maybe hang out at the pub on the main floor of the hotel. Hopefully meet some fun English people. I still can't get over how nice everyone is (other than the one mean lady).

Tomorrow we are going to maybe go somewhere in Cornwall but we need some warm clothes because it is so darn cold here!!!

One last thing...this is the first internet cafe with ports (or whatever) for my camera to hook up to, I could have uploaded some pictures, but no, I left it in London! Sorry!!

First day in London...

So today was the first full day in London, it is a Huge city!! Yesterday I arrived around lunch time, made it to the hotel (the lovely "Piccadilly Backpackers Hotel", which I would not necessarily recommend for people to stay at), then went on a walk via Traflager Square, over to Buckingham Palace, taking a very roundabout way so it took at least twice as long. Of course it was raining, it was just like Seattle. Then I went back to the hostel and took a nice long nap.

This morning Jen and I went on the "Big Bus Tour", then to the London Tower, then for a nice little boat ride on the Thames (very dirty looking), Jen went up in the Eye of London (think - huge ferris wheel that you stand in, is glass enclosed, and gives a great view of the city). Being scared of heights I chose to sit by the river and people-watch. Then back on the bus to Harrod's where we had tea (I replaced the tea with hot chocolate), walked around (very expensive). I forgot to mention, everything here is so expensive! Gas looks like it's about $8-9 per gallon or so, lattes are just a little bit less but that's in pounds, so it's still almost twice as much. Money is going very quickly. We got back on the bus, drove around Kensington Palace, over by Notting Hill (didn't get to see Hugh this time, although we did learn earlier where both Sean Connery & Margaret Thatcher live). Got off the bus so we could walk through a small hurricane at Hyde Park, then over through Green Park so Jen could see Buckingham Palace, and then back through Green Park which has fun chairs you can rent out to sit on (which might be more attractive in the sunshine).

Tonight we may go along with the hostel "outing" to some pub or another, we shall see. Hopefully we can avoid our 7x7 room for a little while longer, and most definitely the mildewy shared bathroom down the hall with barely enough water to wash your hands and definitely not enough water to rinse your hair.

Tomorrow we're hopefully going to disappear into the English countryside and then I can't wait for sunshine in Italy!!!

Getting ready...

Ok, so this "Italian Vacation" is not going to be anything close to "Christmas Vacation" (at least it sure as hell better not be!), but for those of us who know and love that movie, how could I not choose that for a title?

Got lots to do before the trip, just wanted to get this started!