Sitting in the Venetian Sun

Hey Everyone!

Yesterday was an amazing day.  It marked a year and a half that Mallory and I have been together.  To celebrate, Mallory and I took a gondola ride through the Venice canals, both the Grand Canal and the side canals.  Our gondolier, Georgo, was fantastic.  While we relaxed and enjoyed the beauty that is Venice, he paddled away while spouting interesting historical information about the buildings we sailed past.  For Mallory and me, it was the best kind of activity, romantic and informative.  We learned that being a gondolier is a family tradition, that the small canals are about 8 ft deep and the Grand Canal is about 12 ft deep, that 98% of the Venetians work in the tourist industry, and that there are four major bridges over the Grand Canal and over 400 bridges over the small canals. 

We left Georgo and headed in the direction of St. Mark’s Square.  We took the “tourist route” through gift kiosk after gift kiosk, eventually ending up in the shopping district of Venice with high end boutiques like Gucci and Ferrigamo.  We chose to bypass these stores and headed into the Murano Glass shops instead.  There are so many beautiful designs.  We were captivated by quills, wine stoppers, and various figurines made of glass.  All of which were too expensive and too fragile for us to buy.  Anyways, we stopped for gelato along the way, neither one of us can remember right now what we had (we’ve had so much gelato, at LEAST two scoops a day) but after eating it my tummy started to hurt.  It was something that I had started to notice once we got to Venice and mostly after we had gelato.  I couldn’t understand why, so I decided to mention it to Mal this time.  And do you know what she said…?  Something so horrible and so upsetting, I’m surprised I haven’t blocked it out of my memory.  She told me that I might be lactose intolerant.  Can you believe that?!?!?!?!?!?!  Lactose intolerant?!?!?!?!  Are you kidding me?!?  That is like a death sentence.  I mean, no cheese, no ice cream/gelato, no dairy of any kind, what is the point of living???????  Luckily, Mal popped into a pharmacy and came out with these pills that she told me to take the next time I had gelato or pizza.  I looked at her skeptically but took one and headed to the gelateria next door (about 30 minutes had passed since our last scoop so we were over do for another one) and low and behold I had no tummy ache afterwards.   Isn’t my girlfriend amazing?  She is always looking out for me and my best interests.  So I say to you, the unfortunate souls who have been diagnosed lactose intolerant, the cure is out there and it will allow you to eat all the pizza and ice cream you want!!

Anyways, moving on, we eventually made it to St. Mark’s Square.  It was beautiful and big and crowded (with both people and pigeons).  Mal and I have taken to watching the birds a lot this trip.  It has been really fascinating and fun because apparently it is mating season.  We like to sit and watch the male pigeons do their “sexy” dance for the female pigeons.  It is so amusing.  So when we got to St. Mark’s Square and the entire place was covered in pigeons, it was like watching a bird orgy!  So we sat down for a bit and took in the scenery before taking off to find some food.

A couple hours and miles later, after trekking through the maze that is Venice, we decided on a cute little place for dinner that Mal had found on the internet with rave reviews.  We arrived right when they opened and already it seemed to be filling up quickly.  We didn’t have reservations so we were seated at a table for four with an Asian couple.  So to be clear it was a table for four being used as two tables for two.  It was definitely awkward.  They seemed nice though and later on in the meal we found out that they were Korean but studying in Vancouver.  For our antipasti dish Mal and I ordered small shrimp in polenta (American translation: baby shrimp in a cornmeal like substance).  I’m a pretty picky eater but t was surprisingly good.  Kinda chewy but all in all I was happy with it.  Our main dish (funny enough was the same main dish the Asians ordered) was Spaghetti in a scallop and shrimp based sauce with artichoke and langostini.  And it was beautiful.  I’ll let Mallory describe…

 The texture of the pasta was perfect, we received it slightly al dente, and by the time most of the food on the plate had been consumed it was cooked to perfection. The langostini tasted as though they had been basted in the same ju as the spaghetti, but had none of the expected boiled bloat. I don’t know what they did, I don’t know how they did it, but it was absolutely delicious.

As for me, I was a little startled to receive three very large shrimp (head, tail, shell, and legs) on top of my perfectly cooked spaghetti.  Mallory didn’t seem to share in my surprise.  I agree that the food was great, however I had a really hard time getting over my food looking at me that I only had a little bit of the shrimp.

After dinner, we walked home and both pretty much crashed.  We decided to skip Florence and stay another day in Venice.

So today, Saturday, is our last day in Venice before we hop a train to Rome tomorrow morning.  The day has been spent making arrangements for Rome, doing laundry, and just relaxing.  Right now we found a little side alley close to our hotel.  The alley leads right to the Grand Canal where we are sitting up against a wall in the afternoon sun in shorts and t-shirts enjoying the lovely sea breeze.  Mallory is reading Atlas Shrugged and I’m writing this blog but occasionally we look up and wave to the people in the boats and gondolas passing by.  This is just as good as any beach…a secluded spot right on the water enjoying the cool (yet not too cool) Venetian afternoon.         

We HEART Venezia

Today was our second day in Venice. It is absolutely beautiful here. The weather is perfect, the crests of the canals dance all day long in the sun, and everyone speaks English. Life is good.

I had four scoops of gelato total today, Jen had two. For breakfast: gelato; lunch: spinach ricotta calzone and chicken siciliana calzone; for dinner: spaghetti alla bolognaise, ravioli alla bolognaise, and a magherita pizza. I had a “spritz” with my meal, recommended on someone’s blog as a favorite early evening Viennese drink. What showed up was a bright orange liquid with a green olive on a stick and a slice of lemon floating at the top with a few pieces of ice. It looked horrible; it was DELICIOUS. We walked to a Il Doge Gelateria a couple doors down from the restaurant that has some of the best, freshest gelato on the island. I got three scoops: chocolate hazelnut, caramel (which had a picture of flan next to the title), and hazelnut. Jen got one of the signature flavors: crème del doge, which was chocolate with orange. All of it was delicious and amazing. Jen and I can find our way back to our hotel without a map now (a bit of wandering, of course, but that’s the fun of it.)

Every corner has a new amazing shop with handcrafted workmanship, a centuries old church adorned with aged saints, or a gallery of Murano glass (beautiful to look at and window shop). Today Jen and I wandered into a mask shop. The cobblestone streets still hold the confetti from Carnival a few weeks ago (at the beginning of Lent), apparently it’s a big deal around these ‘ere parts. The mask shop had all handmade hand painted papier-mâché masks of every color, sparkle, and animal one can imagine.

We came back to the hotel after lunch and wandering. I had a headache and needed to lay down without the sun shining in my eyes. Jen saw me back to the room then went to buy me some caffeine. She came back with a giant two-liter Coca Cola Light (my FAVORITE soda in Europe) and a cannoli to help the healing along. We took our afternoon siesta outside our French doors to the little balcony/plaza outside our hotel room. We’re on the top floor of the building, so we have access to the area where the cleaning ladies air dry the hotel’s sheets and it makes for a very pleasant and comfortable sitting area.

I researched places to eat dinner recommends on the internets after we had rested up, and Jen and I decided on a couple of options plus one gelataria nearby. The first place didn’t work out, the second place was just a takeout pizza place, which we weren’t looking for, so we just picked another restaurant near by these two Venice staples, figuring that most of the places in the area had much of the same reputation. We were either right or lucky, because dinner this evening was delicious. The gelato place I had found online was still close to where we had suppered, so all my research wasn’t for naught!

It was a nice easy breezy day followed by a simple and lovely evening. It’s been nice to just spend time with one another and be able to appreciate the nuances of not such a touristy couple of days in Venice. Tomorrow is supposed to be our last day here, but we’re considering extending our Venice stay by a couple of days and skipping Florence altogether, maybe even heading to Rome early. Lots to discuss!

Bonjour (Part 3)

So after having a wonderful dinner watching the sunset over the Paris canals, Mallory and I opted to get dessert at the McDonald’s next door to our hotel and make our list of what we wanted to accomplish during our week in Paris.  I know it sounds weird that we wanted to get dessert at McDonald’s but the McDonald’s in Europe are nothing like the McDonald’s at home.  For one thing they are super clean, and they seem to be a “cool” place to hang out, kinda like a Starbucks in the States.  Anyway, they have super modern/comfy couches and chairs to sit in and they tend to be multiple stories.  As far as the food goes, the McDonald’s in Paris had its own separate counter for espresso and other café drinks as well as pastries and desserts.  Crazy right???  So Mallory and I get this berry crumble thing that is super good and spread out our maps and stuff on the table to look over everything.  As we are planning out our next few days, a group of kids come up to us asking for money.  There were three of them , two boys and a girl, and they all looked thin and dirty.  It was really sad.  The one little boy came up with a sign and asked us for money for food.  Mallory and I said no but he kept asking and putting his sign in front of me.  Finally they left, Mallory and I felt really bad that we couldn’t help them…that is until about 15 minutes later I realized the kid had stolen my iPhone.  Yes, that’s right, I was ripped off by a 12 year old.  Needless to say that put a damper on our first day in Paris.  Anyways, after that Mal and I were ready to be done with the day so we headed back to our room, called Mom to cancel my ATT service, and then headed to bed with the hope that the next day would be better.

As far as the blogs go from here on out, we will most likely blog simultaneously about what we are doing in Italy and what we did in Paris so we can catch up.  So just to clarify…any time we blog about Paris it’s the past and any time we blog about Italy it is the present.

We will keep you posted!  Also, we love reading your comments so feel free to leave us some!

Bonjour (Part 2)

So Billy Elliot was amazing!  The boy who played Billy was incredibly talented and very fun to watch.  What a dancer this kid was!  I really hope he has a future in theater.  Even though Mallory isn’t a huge musical fan she still seemed to enjoy the show.  After the show we hopped on the tube and went back to the hotel.  By the time we got back it was around midnight.  We very quietly finished our packing and were lucky enough to get to bed around 1am before we had to get up at 3:15am to catch our 5:25am train to Paris.  Well I had planned the whole route out via bus because the tube didn’t run that early.  We got on our first bus at the right time and made it to our switch point without a hitch.  The problem started when we got off our first bus and couldn’t find the stop for our second bus.  Once we realized where the stop was, the bus was passing us and we missed it.  We ended up waiting for about a half hour before the next bus arrived to take us to St. Pancras station.  Let me just say…I planned this journey with extra time just in case something like this happened, so it’s not like I was cutting it close.  Anyway, our second bus trip took 12 minutes but stopped outside Kings Cross Station and not St. Pancras International.  So imagine Mallory and me literally running around London with giant backpacks (both of us almost taking nose dives into the pavement at some point) at 5am having no clue which direction to go, it was incredibly funny looking back on it now. (Stress: looking back on it)

So we make it onto the train and lug our packs to their holding area and collapsed into our seats. The train pulls out of the station at EXACTLY its departure time. I’m just happy that Jen was in charge of our wake-up and transportation schedule that morning! We saw a beautiful amazing sunrise over the green rolling hills of central-southern England before we lapsed into the semi-coma that only a four AM marathon can induce. (Did I mention that we got into our seats with FOUR MINUTES TO SPARE! Seriously. I can’t even…it was ridiculous. Anyway…) We woke up as the train was readying itself for our Gare d’Nord arrival. And we continued waking up during the 25min slow down (to a snail’s pace) pull in to the station. After we got off the train, Jen immediately announced that we had to find a park (Sounds romantic and lovely; but wait--) because she needed to sleep, and anywhere would do. So we pulled out our map to attempt to find a park…so that Jen could go to sleep. Upon pulling out our map, we were immediately approached by a French tween girl gesturing at a clipboard. She wanted us to sign our information to the deaf and mute children of France mailing list or something. Jen had the pen in her hand and was confusedly staring into the girl’s adorable mute face when an old bald Frenchmen came up to us shaking his finger. First he shook it at the tween girl,  then at us, then at us at the tween girl, aaand we realize that we were about to have our identities stolen. So we thank him (kind of) and apologetically/confusedly walk away from the girl who was apparently NOT mute, because she turned to scold the old man for foiling her plans. (Making her sound like an evil genius, now, but at the time the names on the list were photocopied and these kids are at every subway station for a tourist attraction in all of France…that was definitely more than one run-on sentence. But hopefully you were able to follow. Apologies.) A nice black man on the street told us how to get to the park, so we made our way over there. I pulled out Atlas Shrugged and Jen rested her head in my lap and stretched out on one of the park’s benches. About ten minutes later, the first black nanny and child arrived in the park to play. Within 20 minutes we were overrun. Jen and I had a nice time watching the children mess with one another, but eventually decided to go back to a McDonalds we had seen near the train station. From there we used the internet to figure out how to get to our hotel and were easily able to navigate the subway stops to the area of the Hotel Comete. We got off the subway at the Jaures metro stop which is right on a canal. We tried to follow the addresses in the area to the hotel, but soon sat down, again, to rest on some benches in the sun and to take in the gorgeous day. When we got our bearings we realized that we had gone in the wrong direction. So we headed back up the street and found our hotel (right next door to ANOTHER McDonalds! Magnifique!) My 13-years of Spanglish finally paid off fore I was able to check us into our hotel in my mangled dialect. The lovely madame who owns the hotel only speaks French, Italian, and Spanish, so we didn’t have much to work with, but we adapted. We checked at about 1 o’clock and slept for the next few hours. We had a good time walking around the neighborhood and having our first dinner in Paris from one of the bakery/sandwich shops that are everywhere in this neighborhood. We ate near the water as the sun was going down and it was beautiful.

To Be Continued…

Bonjour (Part 1)

Bonjour!

Greetings from Paris!!!  I am sorry that it has been so long since we have written; it has been a hectic and eventful few days.  Where did we leave off…hmmm…right…last you heard from us we were in our second to last day in London  So instead of doing all the wonderful things we had planned for that day such as seeing St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey, we spent ¾ of the day sitting at the Rail Europe office trying to get our train tickets from Paris to Venice.  After we bought our train tickets we went to check out same day ticket prices for Billy Elliot the Musical.  Sadly they didn’t have any for that evening’s performance but we did get a great deal on tickets for the following night’s performance…19 Euros per person for the 4^th row!  As my grandmother would say…Such A Deal!!!  From there we walked to Buckingham Palace to have tea with the Queen…well not really. 

And the guards did this bizarre goosestepping thing every fifteen minutes. They all looked like they knew it was ridiculous, but the recession makes people do some stupid-looking things! So then we walked along the park that’s across from Casa de Her Majesty and down to the Marble Arch. Then we walked to Harrod’s which is a gigantic department store that both of our mothers informed us we HAD to visit while in London…so we did. It was a big department store.  A big department store with insanely expensive merchandise. Merchandise so expensive, in fact, that we were required to remove our backpack before we entered for fear that we may jar one of their…jars or any other items from their beloved shelves. The first half hour was spent desperately trying to exit the perfume section. We would have left the building if we had been able to do so, but the friggin’ place was like a giant smelly labyrinth. Fortunately that Dantesque nightmare was quickly followed by the Park from Willy Wonka opening atop one of the twelve-thousand mini escalators, complete with the flowing chocolate river. AND OOMPA LOOMPAS! Almost anyway. (Note: spray tanner should be outlawed for those who do not operate such luxuries with discretion. We headed back to our hotel early so that we could begin to pack up. Since the next day was, once again, planned to be jam packed with excitement, we knew we might not have enough packing time the next evening for doing all that needed to be done.

The next morning we got up and had our morning tea and muffin in the dining room where we met Ray and Valerie.  Ray was an Irish musician and Valerie was a French teacher, who were getting ready to tour the States for three weeks by helicopter.  We had a lovely chat with them (mostly Ray…he was a talker) and discussed both of our trips and their upcoming nuptials once they returned.  Once we were on our way, we headed towards Westminster Abbey.  We took a bus so we could take the scenic route through Notting Hill.  Once inside the Abbey we took the audio tour and learned about all the history behind the stunning building.  It was fascinating but we couldn’t stay too long because it was getting late and we still needed to make it to St. Paul’s before it closed.  When we arrived at St. Paul’s, the exterior was so stunning that we decided not to pay the 13 pounds per person to go in.  We walked around the exterior for a bit admiring the artistry before moving on.

Down about half a block from St. Paul’s, almost to the Millennium Bridge, there was an adorable pub with reasonable prices. Jen and I decided that it was about the right time in the afternoon-early evening for our libation. Jen had a pint of a very fine local cider, and I enjoyed a local microbrew that was FANTASTIC. It was a very enjoyable, warm afternoon with lots of people in good spirits in their little groups. We almost didn’t want to leave, but eventually did. We crossed Millennium Bridge and Jen was very excited because it was in the sixth Harry Potter movie. There were young men cooking candy-coated peanuts on each side of the bridge and it made the entire area smell AMAZING! We were both full, so we didn’t purchase any, but we enjoyed the view and appreciated the fine aroma on our way to Shakespeare’s Globe theatre. (Not the real Globe, that was destroyed a while ago. And not the remake of the Globe…that was also destroyed a while ago. We sojourned across Millennium Bridge to the THIRD installment of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.) It was almost an exact replica of the original Globe, as close as all the historical documents were able to describe, and it looked really good. We didn’t go on a tour, although that would have been nice, but we still wandered around the inside, the gift shop, and its exterior reading all the little information plaques along the way. I learned a lot. And I’ve taken two college courses on Shakespeare, and several others in which he was covered, and all we did was read the plaques. This place is pretty good. From the Globe we walked down the bank of the Thames. I stopped to take a picture of Jen in front of the Globe, still buzzed from my fine fine pint (and a bit of Jen’s too), while leaning back for the picture my canteen was dislodged from our daypack and tumbled over a ledge and into the water. A nice guy who was sitting nearby tried to save it as he heard it bouncing behind me (I had no idea where the noise was coming from…or why Jen was giving me that look), but it escaped. We chased it down river a good…15 yards before figuring that it was lost forever. We said our last goodbyes to our faithful canteen (me with my best “WILSON!!!! Nooo! Wilson! I’m sorry!” Tom Hanks impression) and made our way down the river. We passed by the Tate Museum next to the Globe, all the way down to the Waterloo Bridge where we caught a bus back across to the other side of the river Thames. We switched busses until we made it up to Leicester Square for dinner with a family friend. Lawrence was an old (not too old!) friend of Denise’s who has lived in London for five years. We had a fantastic dinner at an Italian restaurant a couple blocks from Trafalgar Square. He was a regular there since he works in that area, so the wait staff was wonderful and super friendly, and Jen and I had a terrific time chatting Lawrence up about everything and anything. (Don’t worry Denise, we take those stories to our graves J ) We had to jog/sprint to Billy Elliot. We were having such a good time at dinner that the play’s start time slid passed us. We missed the opening number, and had to disturb the lovely blonde family residing in the seats closest to the aisle, but still made it to our seats.

To Be Continued…..

the Sun Never Sets on the British Empire!...so when do we get to nap then?

Hey Yankees!

Day four in LondonTown, and Jen and I still haven’t gotten sick of each other! And there’s MORE good news: we had another lovely day of sightseeing. (Today’s without one single error navigating the tube or busses!)

We visited Camden Market straight from the hotel. Camden Market is the fourth largest London tourist destination, we can attest to this stat after our shoppescapade this morning. It kind of had a Venice Beach feel, with vendors selling artwork, vintage clothing, knick-knacks, paddy-wacks, and every type of souvenir one could possibly imagine! ‘Twas beautiful!

We went to the British Museum from the market. Jen had downloaded Rick Steve’s (the travel guru) walking tour of the Museum, so we tried it out and it was very informative. We followed along in a Rick Steve’s London Travel Guide and learned more than during 6 years, K-5^th grades, of California Public Elementary School drilling. And the internal architecture of the building was amazing. Great minds like Virginia Woolf used “the Great Hall” as a reading space. Marx used it while forming his ideas about communism! (So we scowled while being astounded by the spaces austere beauty.) We saw mummies and a piece of Egypt’s Sphinx’s beard, and the Roman Marbles from the Parthenon! (And we’re going to go see it in real life in a few weeks! Exciting much?! I think so!!)

We went and rested Jen’s achin’ feet at a cute little café near the Museum before the Jack the Ripper Tour (a bus ride and a couple of tube stops away…before walking for 2.5 hrs straight!) We walked all over the City of London and learned a lot of history about that space (around the Tower of London). (English history is violent!) Our tour guide has written two books on JTR and knew everything about everything. Our group was mostly American, so there was also a spirit of camaraderie in that. It was actually kind of nice. Our guide was actually pretty funny for a historian. Jen bought one of his books and he signed it for her. She was very happy.

Since it was after eleven by this point, we climbed our bruised and broken bodies into the nearest tube station on Liverpool Street and made our way back to the hostel.

Today (I finished writing this entry the morning after I started it…hope that I didn’t mess up tenses too much. Sorry!) We’re heading out to Notting Hill to look at the area, then over to Piccadilly Station to buy our train tickets from Paris to Venice, then we’re headed over to Westminster to look at Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, the Houses of Parliament with Big Ben (which actually refers to the bell inside named ‘Ben’, not the bell tower itself. Interesting!). Then we head back up to the Tower of London area to see St. Paul’s Cathedral. Hopefully we will get most of that done!

Missing everyone terribly! Thanks for checkin’ in here!

Cheers!

The Official(ish) JenMal Trip Itinerary [...note: subject to change, alteration, and occasional falsehoods (you'll never catch US, coppa!)]

I know Jen and I promised several people this list, so I'm finally getting to it. Here ya go!:

3/16 Fly to London
3/17 Arrive Heathrow -- nite spend at Holiday Inn Heathrow
3/18 Commute to Bridge Park Hotel/Hostel, Wembly
3/22 Last day in London
3/23 5:25am Eurostar train to Paris $150
3/24 check in Paris (Angleterre Hotel or Hotel de la Comete...still figuring it out)
3/29 Evening overnight train to Venice
3/30 Arrival Venice
4/2 Intercity train Venice --> Florence $34
4/5 Intercity train Florence --> Rome $42
4/5-4/9 Rome
? Athens
? Santorini
4/19 Athens --> Heathrow 7pm flight
4/19 Back to the Holiday Inn Heathrow (thanks Mom!)
4/20 9:55am -- Heathrow--> LAX ~4pm arrival
4/20 ~5pm play with Dewey and Kramer