In the Land of Canals

We made it to Venice. I was worried, sometimes, about going to Venice. I get this way whenever people gush about anything. Will it live up to those crazy expectations? Will it have tarnished or faded?

Venice is a complicated and intense place to visit. It is overwhelmed in parts by massive, crushing crowds. It's confusing, awkward, and expensive.

you can some of the crowd here, as a tour approaches

here, in St Mark's Square (this is actually tame)

and kind of here, if you zoom in along the water (crazyness to the fullest)

But Venice is charming. It's unlike any place I've been. We arrived with the crowds on a train from Parma and stood outside the train station trying to decide which of the many "bus" tickets made sense. We negotiated our way through the crowds and onto our first bus, actually a vaporetto, sort of like a small ferry. And then, we were riding our way down the canals of Venice to our hotel.

Venice is amazing. Our photos won't do it justice, because none can. The water laps at the steps of the first floors of the old mansions. Businesses and hotels have photos inside of the past floods (kinda like in Tillamook, but 3 or 4 feet). There are city maps that plot out the high areas and routes to take to get around during the ever present floods.

But for a city defined by water, Venice is a lot more. On the back alleys (actually alleys, not canals) Venice looks a lot like other old Italian cities. Old buildings, tiny grandmothers, laundry hanging on the line, no tourists. In fact, we liked these areas a lot. We wandered around for most of our 2.5 days and got lost, unlost, and lost again. Luckily I married a compass and he always found our way home.
We were able to see two of the four main sights we set out to. The Peggy Gugenheim museum of modern art and Saint Marks. Saint Marks rates as my favorite big church. Mosaics everyone on the ceiling, with beautiful inlaid floors. We attempted, but will have to visit next time Saint Donato's church in Murano (the island of glass). It's know for having blown glass chandeliers and also the bones of the "dragon" slain by St Donato (possible whale bones...). We also missed the cemetary due to our shopping and the sciopero. Next time.

I can't say I'd recommend Venice to everyone- the crowds are frustrating, the tour groups are enormous, and the prices are high. But Venice is unusual, and if you can summon the patience to elbow your way through people, and avoid the Gucci, Prada, and other fancy stores, Venice is lovely. The last night of our trip we took the vaporetto bus home after dark. Gliding past the mansions, some falling down, others beautifully kept, I saw Venice's magic.

Yet Again

So, we've been in Italy for about 7 weeks now. That's a pretty good long time. On a trip that long, you have to expect some problems, especially in Italy. Maybe a power outage, or some security issues in another European country. Maybe a train strike. Maybe even a gas station strike.

But this is getting ridiculous. (You know what's coming, right?)

As we approached the vaporetto station in Venice (a vaporetto is a boat that is a bus, because in Venice, they don't have cars, or streets, they have canals), we saw this sign:
So, if you have been reading this blog, you kow that sciopero means; strike. And if you look at the date, it is translated as: Friday, 13th of July. HELLOVENEZIA my a$$.

On FRIDAY THE 13TH, the entire local transportation system for Venice (with some exceptions, none of which helped us) shut down for 7 hours in the middle of the day. I have to say that it's a small miracle that Italy is one of the 8 largest economies in the world. With the number of strikes here, I can't believe they get anything done.

Anyways, guess what day we needed to get from our hotel, located on the southern end of Venice, to the train station, located on the northern end. Yup.

So yesterday, on by far the hottest of our three days in Venice, we straped our bags on, heavy with some new acquisitions, and started walked through the narrow alleys and over the canals of Venice. 60 short minutes later, I thought Kimberly was going to pass out as we reached the station.

But we wouldn't let this little setback ruin what was otherwise a great time in Venice. Like true Italians, we just gave a little shrug, and rolled with the flow.

And if you're counting, this is 3 sciopero's that have directly influenced our lives, with a 4th that very much almost did. One strike for every 2 weeks of travel; not a bad ratio.

My Birthday in Italy

While all of you got to celebrate my brithday, and coincidentally the 4th of July, with some nice fireworks, and maybe some burgers and hot dogs over a hot BBQ, I was stuck in this horrible place:
I know, I know, it was rough, but we made it through.

Also, in an earlier post, Miles was kind enough to wish me a happy birthday. Thank you Miles.

However, in her comment, Kimberly stated that I had been making friends with new cats in Italy, behind Miles' back. Well, I provide this picture as proof that she is slandering my name to protect herself:
I'll let him be the final judge.

It's Been A While...

...since we've psoted anything on here. And, unfortunately, this post won't be very good. We've been having trouble finding cheap internet cafes - this one isn't too bad, but we don't have much time. So instead of a real post, some bullet points. Because everyone loves bullet points: concise, easy to read, fun times. OK:

• I think the last time I wrote, I was sick in Bologna. That was a while ago. Since then, I've mostly gotten better. MY throat still hurts on accassion, but I think thats because it's fairly hot here and I'm always dehydrated. Bologna was pretty cool, but much larger than we expected. We mostly just hung out. But we did go to one of the most interesting museums we've been too. It was a zoology museum, and deserves its own post (which I've startd, but refuse to post until I can put up pictures). We also watched an outdoor movie in Italian, and understood probably 75% of it.
  
• We then spent 4 days in Mila, with my cousin Manu and her boyfriend Guido. They were fantastic, letting us stay in his apartment for free, bringing us to very fashionable places where we were grossly out of place. In fact, Kimberly almost got thrown out of a bar because she took a picture. When the bartender said, in perfect english 'you didn't take a picture, right?' and she replied 'I'll take one of you next', his look said that this was no joke. But we really realy liked Milan. Most Italians say Milan is like the US. Well, it kind of is in that it isn't too chaotic or full of people pushing you out of the way to get to the cashier first. It's a big clean city, where people work full days. Its more Western than the rest of Italy, but I wouldn't say American. Maybe German.
• We spent a day on Lake Como, half-an-hour north of Milan, on the border with Switzerland. We walked up and down very steep hills. Our legs hurt. We ate very god food. Although I enjoyed it, I think I would have liked it better had it been sunny, and not raining.
• When Manu asked us where we were going next, and I told her, she made the I'm jealous face. That's because the Cinque Terra is in the Italian Riviera, has lots of sun, and is absolutely beautiful. I'll post more on this roo, if I can upload pictures somewhere, because it is beautiful. It's much more touristy than when I went 7 years ago, but the hiking, sun, and swimming were as great as I remember from back then. We were planning on spending 3 nights here, and ended up with 5, so that should tell you something.
• We are now in Parma, which I can best describe as Milan-lite. Its a small industrial City with no tourists. It is famous for Prosciutto, Parmigiana cheese, Parmalatte milk, and some other industries (I think Pirelli is near here). The food has been exceptional. The people friendly. And we've found an Internet cafe that serves wine. So nice. We are really enjoying our time here, although short. Because tomorrow we go...
• to Venice. Which we are very much looking forward to. It is the last crazy-tourist place we will be visiting on our trip, but it will be great. The Biennale is happening and we will go to the Guggenheim, both of which will hopefully provide some rest from the Renaisance art that dominates Italy. Other than that, we plan on getting lost on the small narrow streets of Venice.

After Venice, we will be heading north to Padua, then the Dolomites and finally on to Germany. We have 2 weeks left in our trip, which is a long time, but seems very short. We're having a great time, and still haven't killed each other yet (although Kimberly's sun burn is hurting).

Not sure how often we'll be able to post - it seems internet is more expensive and harder to find as we move north - but we'll do our best. I imagine a steady stream of 'remember when...' posts once we get back to the states. And we have about 2000 pics to post.

Ciao.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Hi Dad and Mom,

I was wondering what all of the excitement was yesterday and overheard my foster mom and foster sister saying it was your birthday. My birthday was earlier this week.

Well, everyone celebrated YOUR birthday but foster mom just gave me extra treats for MY birthday. I wasn't very impressed with all the noise and smoke and other weird smells. To tell the truth, I hid under the bed for a while. I'm glad everyone likes you and wants to celebrate but next year when we're in Iowa can we be a bit more reserved?

Are you coming home soon?

Miss you. Gotta go, she's home

TMI and a little TLC

I've been fortunate to go on some extended holidays of 2+ months in my relatively short life.

Oddly, everytime it seems I get really sick around the 5th week. Of course, this trip is no different. In the middle of the Lucca time, right after climbing over 400 stairs to see a garden at the top of a tower, then riding 7 miles on a bike on the beautifully paved walls, I got sick. Really sick.

My temp was 39 celcius, which translates to about 102 F. I was hot. I had stomach problems. I think it probably had something to do with the extreme heat we had been experiencing, and the not sleeping so well because of it.

We ended up staying in Lucca an extra night - when Kimberly went to ask the hotel people if they could accomodate us, they got very worried and wanted to call a doctor. So cute.

Kimberly also went to the pharmacy all by herself and bought a thermometer and some medicine for the high temp. I wish I had been there to see those interactions. But she really came through.

I struggled with the sick off and on through our 3 night in Bologna, and am feeling pretty well now that we are in Milan.

It's been really hot here. Even when it's not too hot, I sweat alot. More so than at home. And I drink a lot of water, but maybe not enough. I know I don't drink this much water at home, but I also don't walk this much at home.

We'd like to do some hiking in the Alps and the Dolomites, so hopefully the sick is gone. We'll see.

Our revised, revised agenda

For those following along from home, you've probably noticed that we haven't quite stuck to our "agenda." Yeah, we change our mind a fair bit.

But, we had a meeting of the minds today to hash out our new revised, revised agenda for the last 3 weeks of the trip (only 3 weeks left! ahhhh!).

So, here it is...

4-5 days in Cinqueterra
2 days in Modena
2 days in Venice
a few days somewhere near Venice
a few days somewhere else
2-3 days in Bolzano
head to munich
fly home.

See you all in August!!

What we've been eating

we've been eating our way through Italy, as is only expected. And, I've learned a few things unexpected.

1. Rabbit is a tasty little creature. Who knew? I highly recommend it, especially prepared like we had it in Siena, with pine nuts, rosemary, and pepper. Yum yum.

2. Italian bread seems to need salt. I don't know what it is, but I haven't fallen in love with the bread here. The focaccia, yes, the bread, eh.

3. Breakfast is not the important meal your mom always said it was. In fact, the best, most Italian of breakfasts is espresso and cookies. Not a pastry or something pretending to be "breakfast" food. Flat out cookies. This morning I had basically a twinkie. For breakfast. Crazy.

4. when shopping for fruit at the market, you are NOT allowed to touch the fruit. If at an open farmers' market style booth, you tell the vendor what you want and THEY select the fruit for you. If you are at a grocery store, you have to put on these plastic gloves before selecting your produce. Kinda makes sense when you think about it...

A Belated Birthday

I could write a post about our crazy time in Bologna and the very strange museums we saw there (which I will eventually, because it was too good, but may need to wait til I can upload pictures). Or I could write about coming to Milan and visiting my cousin Emanuela and her boyfriend Guido (which has been wonderful). Or even about what we will be doing over our next 3 weeks here (not really sure, but we think it involves the Dolomites and Venice).

But instead, I'll let you all know that yesterday was Miles' birthday. We don't know that it was actually his birthday, but we adopted him one year ago yesterday. Hopefully he got a treat or goo dpetting in Portland, but we thought it would be weird if we called him for his birthday, as he doesn't talk or anything (and this post is probably weird enough).

So anyways, Happy Birthday cat.

why?

So, lots of Italy makes perfect sense. The siesta is a fanstatic concept, and so what it every store closes from 2-4 every day. That just means you HAVE to take a nap. And the 2 hour lunch? Fantastic! Lunch should be the big meal of the day, and then you get to sleep it off with the siesta. So, in many ways, Italians have got it right.

However... there are a few things that puzzle me about Italy and Italians.

1. change
Apparently, there is some sort of change (ie coinage) shortage in Italy. When presented with a check for say, 13 euro and you try to pay with a 20, you will get a look. Then, they sigh, and ask if you have 3 euro. If not, they sigh again and then laboriously count out your 7 euro change. This is true EVERYWHERE, including the pharmacy, post office, and all manner of businesses. We've been hoarding change for this purpose.

2. "service"
Italians seem to have a different idea of what a job in the service industry requires. Peter and I went looking for a bus ticket to Lucca from Siena during the train sciopero. Seemingly, not a difficult task. We went to the bus station. As the bus systems are independent companies here, there are separate offices depending on where you are heading and which company runs there. We stopped at the first office. "autobus a Lucca?" "no" the woman scoffed. "office over there" So, we went to the second office. "no" the woman scoffed. "over there." "but but but" we protested that we had already been there and they didn't have the tickets. She sighed, and suggested that we try the travel agent office down the street. We wandered around looking for the travel agent. Found the travel agent. No, they were the airline agent, for the bus, we had to go downstairs. Down we go... only to be told by the downstairs agent that they only sold tickets for the train, that the train was on sciopero, and anyway, their computers were down so they couldn't sell us a ticket anyway.

It turns out that the entire time, we were asking the WRONG question. Instead of "bus to Lucca?" we should have asked "what city do I go to to get a bus to Lucca?" Because, there isn't a bus from Siena to Lucca. You have to take the bus to Florence and then change to go to Lucca. All with the same company, of course, and public info we found later online. But since we didn't ask the right question, we didn't get the answer.

So, this is my list in progress, I'm sure to be updated later. The thing that strikes me about this list is the odd similiarity with my experiences in less developed countries (Mexico, Thailand, Cambodia). Sometimes it feels like Italy isn't part of Europe after all.

Roman Holiday

We've been having a crazy fun time in Italy. The chaos has been manageable and the sights have been good. If only the weather would cool down, it would be perfect.

Our second day in Rome was particularly memorable:

It started off like normal, visiting some museums (the Galleria Borhese), sitting in some piazzas (Piazza Quartinile) and generally wandering. Then we ended up near the Trevi Fountain, which was absolutely mobbed at 5 pm; nothing unusual.

After some internet-ing, then some chinese food dinner, we went back over to the Fountain. No only was it still mobbed, it was worse. But the atmosphere was nice, and the weather not too horrendeous.

Then it happened. A commotion in the middle of the fountain. A guy was standing in the fountain, blatantly in violation of the rules, pulling his wife/girlfriend in. As all the Pakistani Rose Sellers descended on the scene, the couple were in the middle of the fountain, moving towards the middle. Then all of a sudden, the guy got on his knee and pulled out a ring. The place exploded. It was surreal.

The cops eventually came over to pull them out, and were trying to arrest/fine them. But the crowd kept getting louder and laùouder, and booing and yelling at the polizia. From what we could tell, the couple only got a slap on the wrist (I guess thos Italian Polizia do have a heart (or bribed)) as they were laughing with the police. They also got some extra harrasement from the rose sellers, who descended like vultures.

After that excitement, we decided to head home. We were going to walk to the Spanish Steps, about 10 minutes away, to check out the cene and hop on the subway.

Once we got to the Steps, we completely missed the subway stop. I'm not really sure how, but we walked right past it. When we discovered this, half way to the next stop, we decided to circle back through some smaller streets to where we thought the station was.

As we walked down an alley, we heard some singing in the distance. As we got closer, we could see a crowd and lights, and could hear some really good music. Great, a little concert for us.

Then, it was clear. Not a concert, a fashion show, complete with runway down the middle of the street and live DJ. It was pretty cool, so we hung out for a while as Kimberly drooled over the pretty dresses.

Since the fashion show blocked the whole street, we needed to double back again to get to the station. When we finally found it, hidden in plain site, our feet were tired. We were glad to hop on the train.

Except the subway was closed.

We were a little confused. We were pretty certain that the subway stayed open until at least 11, if not later. We even checked the guidebooks (which, in all honestly, have been wrong on more than one occassion).

Our frustration mounting, we went to ask a cop what was going on. BeforeI could even get half the question out in my terrible Italian, he said "CHIUSO" very aggressively. At first, I was stunned, so turned to walk away. But I realized we had no way of getting home, so turned back. Anticipating the question, he pointed in the general behind us and said "Autobus."

We went and looked around a little for a bus, but couldn't find a stop. So we decided to walk. According to the map, it didn't look too far - from the Spanish steps to behind Vatican City.

In reality, it took us 1-1/2 hours, and was probably over 3 miles. We were not happy the next morning.

We looked into a sciopero or any news on the subway, but nothing. Just another day in Italy.

________________________________________

We, and I, have been reporting a lot on sciopero's and other nuisances of travelling here in Italy. It's not really that bad, you just need to roll with the punches.

But I wanted to let you know about 2 books we bought in Siena regarding the Italian way of life, including the sciopero and other ways they do things 'differently' over here.

The first is That Fine Italian Hand by Paul Hoffman. It's a fact-based book on Italian history and how it has shaped the people and some of their current institutions. I'm currently in the middle, and am enjoying it.

The other is When In Rome by Robert Hutchinon. This guy moved his family to Rome to invetigate the Vatican City, the smallest country in the world. It' a very funny chrinicle of his adverntures, and while principally about the Vatican, it's really about Rome and the Italian people. I really enjoyed this one.

____________________________________

Finally, I really like this picture I took from inside the Pantheon. The Pantheon may be my favorite thing in Europe - it's absolutely unbelievable to me that such a large, perfectly domed building was built 2,000 years ago. And inside is even cooler. The perfectly spherical dome has a perfectly circular hole in the top, creating some cool lighting and shadows.

This is the shadow that was cast when we were there.

Held Prisoner in an Italian Restaurant

Eating in Italy is one of the better things you can do in life, as we've reported on several occassions in the past. We hear people over here complaining about the food all the time, saying they get better food in San Francisco or New York. These people are idiots and don't know what they're doing. Ordering polenta in Naploli, or Eggplant in Milan probably isn't going to work out well, since most of Italian cuisine in regional. Do some research, eat the local specialties and you'll be fine.


Italian restaurants move at their own pace, often very slow. In this regard, I can understand the frustration with travellers, especially ones with a tight schedule. Fortunately, we have no schedule, so a 2 hour lunch is fine with us.


But there have been 2 notable exceptions.

In our firt go around in Siena, we went to a little hole in the wall place (in Italy, they're all holes in the walls). After getting screwed out an outdoor seat by the hot guy, we got stuck in the back of the restaurant with the other Americans. No big deal. We were hungry and wanted to eat.

So we perused the menu and choose our food. Some rabbit, some pasta, some veal. Then we waited for the waitress to come.

And we waited.

And we waited.

Since Italian service i slow, I didn't want to look like some American who couldn't deal. So we waited some more. It was an on-going discussion as to how long we should wait. We decided 30 minutes was enough.

When I went to talk to the bar, they were shocked, SHOCKED, that we hadn't been helped and he would help us personally. They then proceeded to tell us that half the menu was no longer available.

In the end, the food was good and I got a free glass of Vin Santo (sweet dessert wine) out of it, but it was annoying none the less.

The second instance happened just the other night here in Lucca. We had a great meal, including raviolli, papparadalle, and cutlets milanese.

Once we finished, we asked for the check. And waited.

And waited.

And waited some more.

At this point, we were trying to do everything we could to get the waitress' attention, including staring, waiving money, etc. She obviously thought it was someone else's reponsibility to get us the check, you know, like the fairy godmother.

After 20 minutes (I learned a little bit from the first time), we finally asked for the check again. The waitres acted like it was the first time we asked and promptly brought the check over.

The problem in both these situations is you can't do anything. We could have left the restaurant without ordering, but on a sleepy Sunday evening, we ran the chance of there being no other available retaurants. And we could have walked out on the check, but really, we couldn't.

We're learning the Italian way, but it has its limits. Next time, maybe we'll only wait 15 minutes.

Vacation in Lucca

The title of this post is both a command and an apt description of what we're up to. YOU should come to Lucca. We are here now, and it's a relaxing, lovely, peaceful place. In fact, we are headed out here in a minute it sit and read on top of the old city wall, from the Roman era.

Lucca is a sleepy, tourist town that seems to have a heavy German tourist popualtion (we seem to find these for some reason). Not too many Americans around. The BEST thing we've done so far is to visit the Museum for the History of the Immigration of Italians. It's a small, free museum, not in any of our travel books that documents the historoy of the Italians leaving Italy starting around 1870 until recently. There are pictures, postcards, old menus from the ships, and other small mementos that show what life was like for these immigrants. And, interestingly enough, the museum ends with a display showing the new immigrants, Asians, Africans, and Latinos and cautions us that °They aren't a problem, they have a problem" which is a nice thing to see.


Well, the sunshine and my book beckon to me. Enjoy your sleepy Sunday, I sure will!

It Happened Again

If you ever decide to come to Italy, you should learn this word: sciopero. It means strike. I've written about it before, regarding the air traffic controllers and then the gas stations.

Well, they've done it again. Starting at 9 pm last night and lasting until 9 tonight (10, depending on what news you read), the trains are on strike.

We were supposed to move on to Lucca today from Siena. But yesterday when we went to the station to look at tickets, we found out about the strike. After frantically trying to get bus reservations, and running straight into the wall that is Italian bureacuracy, we had to change our plans. One extra night here in Siena, the trip to Lucca pushed back a day.

It's a good thing we have flexible plans, otherwise, the Italian train people would be getting one nasty letter.


[We were just checking the national strike website (yes, they have a website devoted solely to strikes) and couldn't find the train strike. Apparently, there are some rumors that the strike didn't happen. Apparently, you can't win with these things.]

View from my bedroom window (Sant' Eufamia della Maiella)

Ah, the village. This is Peter's maternal grandparents village situated high up in the Abruzzo mountains. Basically, everyone in the town appears to be family. I know that this isn't quite true, but when every second person you meet is described as a "cucino" (cousin) you start to see a trend.

We had a lovely time visiting the family here and eating. Lots of eating and lots of talking. This isn't a quiet family :)

Some family photos...

[Peter says: lots of pics here. Flickr uploading is too slow. We will upload pics when we get back to the states. And one of my family members can feel free to print the very last picture and give to Giulio for his upcoming birthday]

Angelina, a nosey neighbor, at the local fountain - water straight from the mountain.

Kimberly with Aunt Antonietta, making pizelles.

Peter, towering over his Aunt Eufamia and Uncle Aldo.

Kimberly and Peter with (L-R) Aunt Elda, Aunt Pierina and Uncle Peter.

Uncle Bruno making fish.

Aunt Elda waiving to the camera.

Kimberly, looking normal sized, with (L-R) Aunt Elda, Uncle Bruno, and Uncle Peter.

Uncle Giulio working the land.

Aunt Antonietta (Middle) with 2 friends, on the Wall.

Kimberly with Aunt Antonietta, on the Wall.

Peter with Mario "Cipolla" - his wife Mary refused to let us take her picture.


Finally, this is Piero, who owns one of the last bars in this small town. He's holding a bottle (of whiskey, I believe) that my other Uncle Giulio drank on his last day in the village. The next morning, there was still a small glass left at the bottom, so Piero and his wife saved the bottle. If you zoom is on the label of the bottle, you may notice the date - 9/5/97 (I left the image big, so you can and I know, it looks like 87, but it's 97 And remember, in Europe, they reverse the day and month). They told me they had a little party last month because it was the 10 year anniversary since my Uncle Giulio left to move back to the US.

The Summer Solstice

So it's really hot over here; the day we left Rome, it was supposed to be around 40 degrees - CELSIUS (divide by 5, multiply by 9, add 32, and you get: 104 degrees Farenheit)!!! I don't know if it actually got that hot, but every day we were there, it felt at least that hot. And our second go around in Siena is more of the same.

At night, it actually cools down a few degress, but with the added humidity, it feels twice as bad.

It's not supposed this hot here, yet. Maybe August, but not June. I would blame Global Warming, but our President says that's a lie. So we suffer with long pants (required for churches) and lots of free water from the many fountains (actually potable, as well).

Additionally, it is almost the summer solstice, either today or tomorrow or the day after. This was reinforced to us at St Peter's Square in Rome.

In the middle of the square, there is a giant obelisk (above)

which is in the center of a perfect ellipse. As we were wandering around the square, we noticed stone markers for the 22nd day of each month in a straight line coming from the obelisk. After a few minutes, the light bulb went off: the square is a giant solar calendar, with the top of the obelisk marking the changing of the zodiac signs. A few minutes later, I realized it was almost the summer solstice, so the shadow would almost hit the first marker at around 1 pm (hour adjustment for daylight savings).

If only I had planned a little bit ahead, I could have been there on the solstice, which would have been totally cool. But this was good enough.

The worst thing was no one else seemed to care about this at all.
_____________________

As a side to the heat, we were planning on going to the Sistine Chapel on Monday morning. We even got up early to get there before it opened at 8:45. When we arrived on the bus, we saw a line that was at least half-a-mile long. Oh great. It turned out to be the line for tourist groups with reservations.

The line for individuals was twice as long.

Since it was already really really really really hot out at 830, we decided not to wait it out and went to St Peters Bascillica instead. Of course, it was beautiful, as was everything else in Rome.

Although a little frustrating that we couldn't get into the Sistine Chapel, Kimberly keeps reminding me that we will be back sometime in the future.

View from my bedroom window (Roma)

I actually didn't take this picture until the morning we were packing our bags and getting ready to leave Rome, after 6 days. The reason is, I didn't look OUT our window until that morning, when I remember that I had a series of posts going on and I should take the picture. And the reason of THAT is the heat wave. Currently, I could care less about the view and more about is there an air conditioner and does it work? The answer to those questions being yes, and sometimes. Our convent/hotel had an AC, but seemed to only turn it on from 4-6, both am and pm. But those were the magically cool hours.

Here you go, the view from my bedroom window in Rome.

The bane of my existence

Ah the beauty of the outdoors. Lush green countryside, beautiful trees, and blossoms everywhere. Do you know what I think when I see this? Crap. I need tissue.

Sigh. Allergies. Apparently I am allergic to Italy. This now adds it to Boston (terrible), San Diego (heavens no), and Portland (oh God, give me a new sinus system please). I suspect however, that I'm not suffering due to the general lushness of Italy.

No, no... it is THIS evil plant that does me in

Scotch Broom

We have seen this plant (which Peter refers to as Gorse) throughout Italy. In fact, when we got to Pompeii, we wandered through the indigeous garden area and found a small bush. "Oh" said I, "look how invasive this stuff is, it's even here in the botanical section." One of the group gently pointed out the sign beneath noting that scotch broom was found here during the pre-eruption days.

Apparently it's all Italy's fault!

Anyway, it has followed me throughout the trip. We found it in the village and now, here in Roma without many plants around, it's in my hotel.

When in Rome, eat Indian?

We've been eating a lot of Italian food on this trip. Shocking, no? I mean, it's not really Italian food as much as it's the-food-people-eat-here-cuz-duh-we're-in-Italy food. And the food, well, it's been amazing. From the seafood extravaganza Peter wrote about below to Zia Nanelle's homemade pasta (please note that the spelling of her name is my own invention, that's just what it sounds like when people say it). Zio Bruno made a fantastic feast of seafood salad (mussels, cute little octopus, squid, olives, peppers, and some other things)

linguini with clams and mussels

and then an ENTIRE trout-like fish (spigola maybe?) for each person.

So full all the time.

We've been eating and eating and eating for days. I don't think I've gained weight, but only because the intense eating has been balanced out by the hills, stairs, and cobblestone roads.

So, Peter and I arrived in Roma Thursday night. Dinner time drew near and we both looked at each other and quietly whispered "do you want to eat, I don't know, not Italian food?" Sighs of relief. Tonight was a night without pasta.

We walked past various promising places, the Chinese looked good, and scouted out an Ethiopian place a bit further away. In the end, though, we ended up at an Indian restaurant.

It was SO GOOD. Well, I'm not exactly sure it was the best Indian food I've had.... but last night, it completely hit the spot. It was spicy (most of our food has been rather mild) and contained multiple green vegetable (which we haven't seen in at least a week). FANTASTIC!

For lunch today, we decided to continue the anti-Italian food trend and stopped at a halal kebab and falafel place near the Termini train station. Falafel and kebab sandwiches, and not a bite of pasta!

And tonight, well, in a few minutes, after we leave this internet point, we're headed for Chinese. Right near the Trevi fountain.

Bella Roma indeed.

I am an Idiot Sometimes

Here's a good story to illustrate my point:

When Mom and Sissy were here, we went to visit a City called Sulmona. I spent many summers of my youth about 50 km away, but the only things I remember are that we went there to buy gold and they make confetti there, which, it turns out, I'm not that fond of. Turns out, its a beautiful little Italian city, where everyone walks throught the City center between 5 and 8, the food is good and cheap, and the people are friendly.

We stayed at the Hotel Italia, just off one of the many piazzas, which turned out to be a friendly place run by a super friendly father-son tandem.

While there, the first time, we took out a bunch of Euro's from the bank, so that we wouldn't have to keep going every couple days. However, we didn't want to carry all that money with us, so I had the brilliant idea of hiding it under the mattress. I figured we were so close to where my grandparents were from, I would use the same method of hiding my money.

As we left the room the first night, I said the fateful words: "Let's make sure we don't forget this."

Fast forward to Fano, our next destination. As I unpack to go for dinner, I ask Kimberly where the money is. She says I have it. I'm convinced she has it. Turns out neither of us have it.

I was in a full panic. I ripped apart both our bags. I called the Hotel Italia, but they couldn't find it. I sulked around beautiful downtown Fano. I was miserable. I just lost almost $1000 in Euros.

As I sulked in the City center, next to the fountain, Sissy came up to me: "Didn't you say something about putting the money under the mattress?" [lightbulbs popping]

Um, yes, yes I did!!! I frantically called the Hotel, trying my hardest to explain to them what happened, where it was. 10 minutes later, they called and found it. They were putting it in the family safe. A great weight lifted from my shoulders.
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On our way to Sant'Eufamia, we stopped at the Hotel Italia again, and we got our money. All of it was there; I think they may have even added a $100 bill. I tried to give them a reward, but they wouldn't take it, of course not.

We ended up eating a great dinner, buying fabulous pastries for the family in the Village, and getting picked up in Sulmona by an Uncle, rather than trying to navigate the bus system up the mountain.

Sulmona, as it turns out, is a pretty cool place.

quick fix

I added the picture to the post about the gas strike. Much better now. Enjoy again, if you would.

How I Spend My Days

Did you know that baby birds hatch from eggs?

FROM EGGS!!!!

Unbelievable that something so cute and tasty looking could come from something so boring looking and not-tasty. Anyways, while those two 'owners' of mine are out backpacking around Italy, I've found me a new hobby: watching these silly little birds have new chicks under the deck.

Sometimes Ben and Jerry like to come out and watch with me, but they're not as interested; they roll to their own beat.

This is so cool. I can't wait til they try to fly. Who knows what will happen then?!?!?!?!? Maybe they'll fly!?! Maybe they'll fall!?! Maybe we'll get a snack!?! Who knows. All I know is that the anticipation is killing me (Hm, maybe a new saying: 'Anticipation killed the cat.' I'll have to work on that one).

Back to that Ben and Jerry. Turns out they're not so bad. Once Tiger-stripe over here realized I wasn't going to be taking over, he chilled out. Jerry even caught a bird on the deck and brought it inside. He's got cat-like reflexes (hahahahahahahahahahahahaha - I am hysterical).

The woman who lives here came home. She said she saw those other two and they send their love. But she also told me they've been galavanting all over Europe with new and different cats, even threatening to replace me.

I'm not sure if I should believe her, but I'll be sure to give those 2 a good sniffing when they back. I kind of miss them.

Peace out.

Why travel sucks

I love to travel. I got bit by the travel bug back in college and have loved the adventure of seeing new places and meeting new people ever since.

However... the actual GETTING there part often sucks. Flights get delayed, airplane food sucks, someone throws up next to you or the bathrooms smell bad. It's just a pain. My dad always said he would work on building us a teleporter, you know, out of Star Trek. Alas, that was one project he couldn't complete and we are stuck traveling the old fashioned way.

Mom and Sissy left last Friday (June 8) from the Rome airport to head home. We dropped them and the rental car off about 9:30 that morning for their 1:00ish flight. Then we didn't hear from them for a few days.

These are their reports from the field:

Mom:

"We're finally home. We arrived at PDX at 4:12 on Saturday morning. ETA had been 10:30 Friday night. We spent 24 hours in airport lines, planes, JFK floor, JFK tarmac and finally in the air.The line at Rome was longgggg but we had time to get a panini at the autogrill before our flight. Little did we know that we'd get 2 meals and snacks on the flight. I think they feed you to keep you quiet. Had a great flight actually getting in 1/2 early to JFK. Flight was only half full so everyone got to spread out. Oh, we both got searched before we boarded the plane.Had to wait 45 minutes for a gate so we really hustled through the gates and customs only to get to the terminal and find that all flights were delayed due to weather. There were thunderstorms from Wisconsin down but the real problem was FAA computers had crashed earlier in the day. 4 gate changes - including back to one twice and we got on the plane at about 9:30 pm NY time rather than 6:30. No problem, just a short delay. We then sat on the tarmac for 3+ hours leaving sometime around 1 a.m. Got to "watch" a movie on the tarmac and tour the various runways and we both got some sleep. (Movie unfortunately was one that also played on the flight from Rome)."

Sissy:

"Our Rome to New York flight went smoothly. When we landed in New York visiblity was down to 3/4 of a mile. We cleared customs very quickly and found our gate where our plane was to take off at 6:35 pm EST. That's when the fun began. The flight departing from that gate to Atlanta had been delayed. We then found out that our flight was delayed until 8pm, then 8:44pm, then a gate change taking us from one end of the terminal to the other, then when we arrived at our new gate they knew nothing about our flight. Then they finally annouced another delay where we were to board at 9:14pm. Then we started the boarding process and everyone was very excited at this point. During all of this we learned 2 things that were causing these delays. The first was the FAA computers had gone down in Atlanta and caused a ripple effect of flights being canceled. There was also bad weather from the great lakes south to the gulf of mexico. So we boarded and thought we would be in the air shortly. That was definitely not the case, we spent the next 4 hours sitting on the runway and took off at 1:30am EST. We got to PDX at about 4am PST and was home just after 5am."

It turns out that they did indeed make it home, eventually. And we're still here in Italy. I know that we all had a few concerns about traveling together (I'm sure Peter must have wondered whether he was insane to travel with his wife, mother-in-law, and sister-in-law). And in the end? It went swimmingly. We worked out a system, we managed the crazy freeways, and saw some amazing parts of Italy. And we all took our first vacation in years. I think the consensus is that we'd even travel together again sometime! Hows that for sucess!

Itinery update

Well, we're still in Sant' Eufamia della Maiella, up in Abruzzo. This is Peter's grandparents' village. We have more stories to write and pictures to post, but as you might expect, the computer connection in a town of 170 residents isn't much. So for now, you'll just have to make do knowing that the little Italian I picked up has been of NO use here as the dialect is so completely different. Imagine, me, unable to talk. My family is laughing at the thought right now.

Anyway, once we get to more reliable computers there will be more stories and updates.

The agenda for the next while...

tomorrow Thursday June 14 we head down to Sulmona and catch the train back to Rome. Then we spend 4 nights in Rome seeing the sights. Monday... well who knows? maybe back up to Siena? Heading towards Milan? somewhere in that general direction.

We've got clean clothes (thanks Zia Nanelle) and a place to sleep. What else do we need!!

love you all.

The Empire Strikes...Again and Again

If you remember, the day before we arrived in Italy, the Italian Air Traffic Controllers were on strike for about 4 hours; the Alitalia flight attendants supported them by striking as well. The strike caused the cancellation of many flights; fortunately, ours was not one of them.

We are currently in Assissi, staying at a wonderful farm B&B (agriturismo in the local parlance) called Agriturismo Alla Madonna del Piatto. We took a cooking class, have a beautiful view, and have visited some wonderful small towns.

This morning, we were on our way to Torgiano, which has both a wine and an olive oil museum. Then on to Deruta and some beautiful ceramics. Then wine tasting. Our gas tank was almost empty, so we stopped at a couple gas stations, but they were both closed. 'No problem' we thought, 'we'll just stop on the highway.'

When we got to the gas station on the highway, we saw this sign:

Do you know what sciopero means? Take a wild guess.

Yup, a gas strike.

As you may imagine, we were in a panic. The strike doesn't end until Thursday night, when we are supposed to be on our way to Rome to drop off Mom and Sissy at the airport.

Kimberly was also awed that all the gas stations in the whole country, covering at least 5 different companies, would actually work together enough to have a nationwide strike. If you have been in Italy before, you can kind of understand why. I explained that Italians are united in their love of soccer, eating and drinking wine, and organized labor.

We started calling everyone we thought might have some info, which included 2 people: my father in Pratola and the agriturismo manager. We also grabbed some truck drivers at the rest stop and talked to them, kind of. They explained that there might, MIGHT, be an open station on the Autostrada, 60 km away. We had about 100 km of gas, so that was a stretch.

Finally, salvation arrived. Letitzia, the fabulous owner of the agriturissmo, called with good news. Her cleaning lady knew someone who owned a gas station and was willing to sell us gas. The only problem: we had to pose as her cousins.

We ended up pulling into a gas station, where I needed to go into the store and ask for 'Allesandro' and explain I was Laura's cousin. After an interesting look from the woman behind the counter, I was directed to an old man outside. He looked at me and turned to a younger guy, who then proceeded to fill our gas tank.

Two hours after we started, we finally began our day. The itinerary was shortened, but it was still great. The ceramics in Deruta are amazing. The views, as always are amazing.

So far, 2 weeks in Italy, 2 strikes. With Bush coming to Rome on Friday, it promises to be another eventful day (Mom and Sissy leaving that day, Kimberly and I sleeping in Rome that night).

And there's a rumor that the firefighters are going to strike on Friday, which will only add to the fun.

Bella Italia.

(15 June 2007 Edit: added photo and corrected inconsistency)

Quick Thoughts

I can't download photos on the computer I am currently on. Joy. Maybe one of these days we'll have free run of a functioning computer for a while and I will be able to download some good photos. But until then, sorry. You'll have to survive with the ones Kimberly has already uploaded.

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I wonder how Miles is doing. We met his Italian cousin in Sienna. Kimberly was cheating on Miles with him. We have pics, which you may see someday.

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Umbria is beautiful. There have been thunderstorms passing through, which are fun to watch from up on the hills. Assissi is also beautiful, and houses the Basilica of St. Francis, which is a site to behold on the side of the mountain.

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We took a cooking class at the agriturismo. We made risotto, rolled pork (like bresciola, but not at all), and Italian cookies. It was fantastic. We now know how to make no fuss risotto. Maybe we'll share some day.

__________________

I think I spell Assissi wrong. I think its Assisi, but I don't have time to look right now. I'll change it later. I know I am spelling Siena wrong, as I think it's Sienna.

__________________

I'm getting kicked out of the Internet Cafe. Joy.

Ciao.

View from my bedroom window (part 5)

Sienna.



It is purely by luck that we are here today in Sienna. We thought we were headed to our agriturismo villa tonight, but when we called to confirm figured out that we were a day early. This is the best mistake so far! We were FORCED to spend a day in Sienna, my so far favorite city in Italy (no offense to all of the lovely Italians in my family and their hometowns intended). Sienna is serene after the chaos of Florence, small and sweet and beautiful.



And this is the view from my bedroom window.

The View from Our Bathroom Window

Kimberly has been reporting on some of the beautiful views from our various bedrooms in Italy. But the best hotel view so far has to be this one:

This is the view you would see if you were sitting on the toilet in our room at our hotel in Siena.

Yup.

View from my bedroom window (part 4)

Ah Florence. So much beauty, art, and culture.

So many tourists.

This is the view from my bedroom window.

Not quite as inspiring, huh. We stayed on backpacker row... with all the college ages tourists and the drunks. Also the mosquitos. So, not the ideal-est of accomodations. But Maria and her husband (who spoke Spanish) made up for the noisy hordes. My Italian has improved by leaps and bounds and my Spanish is coming back too!

Treasure at Sea

The moral of the following story is: try new things. At least once, possibly twice.

As we were travelling north from Pratola Serra to Florence, we cut across the middle of the country and drove along the Adriatic Coast on Italy's east side. First we stopped in Sulmona, a city so close to my grandparents' village in Abruzzo that I almost felt bad that we didn't go visit (but Kimberly and I are going later in the trip, so I don't feel too bad). We then drove out to the coast to head north to tuscanny.

We were looking to stay on the coast somewhere kind of close to Florence, but read that Rimini was a party town (and we're taking it slow) and Ravenna has a lot of really cool stuff (and we only had one night to spend, not the 2 or 3 Ravenna seemed to require).

We ended up staying in Fano, a small, seaside port. It seems that Fano is a big spot with the Euro crowd (lots of German language pamphlets), but our American guidebook had very little information.

As we wandered the historic center, checking out the old fountains and piazzas, we started getting hungry. Since this was the closest we would get to the ocean on our trip, we decided to have some seafood. Fano had many options, but many seemed to be prohibitively expensive.

When we first walked past the Hosteria 500, we weren't convinced; it was empty and had no prices posted. After some investigation, Kimberly and Sissy saw that the prices were reasonable, so we were decided to give it a try.

At first, it was a quiet time. A little spumanti and fried artichokes, on the house, to start us off. We perused the menu, looking at some pasta with fish options that looked fine. We also were looking for some local wine, but had no idea what was good for the region.

We started by ordering just the pasta plates, with Mom getting convinced by the waiter\cook to have the special - the polenta with frutta di mare (fruits of the sea). Through some difficult Italian-English negotiations, we decided on a bottle of Bianchello del Metauro, as it turns out a lovely white wine. Then we were done ordering. Or so we thought.

The waiter would have none of this 'one course' ordering. He insisted that we must have an antipasti. Although we resisted at first, his Italian charm eventually broke us; I ordered an 'antipasto typico.'

As we sat sipping our wine, he brought the first plate of antipasti - frech anchovies in olive oil. Although we were all a little worried at first (anchovies don't have the best reputation in the states) we figured when would we be able to eat fresh anchovies again, right? And it turns out these little suckers were really tasty.

Well that was a good appetize...what's this? Um, beans are typical of the regi...oh, those aren't beans they're bombolini? What? Oh, bombolini are snails. Ok.

Well, when's the next time we're going to eat snails? A little picking, a little sucking, and down the hatch it goes...and...wow, not so bad. Let's try a couple more.

If you ever get to eat a snail, do it. By the end of the plate, Sissy was basically fighting us over the last few. They were that good.

Alright, antipasti is ove...more? Bruschetta? Fantastic. Beans? Wow. Random white fish with oil and herbs? Divine.

Popolo? Um, that looks like, um, tentacles. Is that, um, Octopus? Um, yes, yes it is.

I have to say, the octopus was fine, but not great. A little chewy. The dressing was very good though.

And finally, the antipasti ended. We were informed that the four of us ate antipasti for two. I'm not sure if that's true, because we could barely eat our main course. Spaghetti with fish sauce, Polenta with frutta di mare, gnocchi with radicchio and porcini in a cream sauce, and pisatelle with a white fish sauce all went half eaten (well, I finished my gnochhi; those were like little pillows of wonderful).

Really, the antipasti was the star of the show. And could've been eaten alone.

We've eaten a lot of good foo on this trip so far, but those little snails will certainly hold a place in my heart for many years to come.

View from my bedroom window (part 3)

Perhaps you're seeing a trend here? This is the view from my bedroom in Fano, on the Adriatic coast. We stopped by on our way to Florence. It was pretty quiet, although the summer looks to be crazy; private beaches, umbrellas, and tourist info in German everywhere.

We were lucky, though and caught Fano before the tourists arrived. We didnàt spend long, as we were on our way north, but it was nice to be on the coast and see some water (it was also significantly cooler than in Pratola Serra...). Iàll let Peter tell the story of our delightful dinner here.

The food in Italy

Ah Italian food. So delightful. I'm far from tired of the different pastas, pizzas, salumi, gelato, and other tasty things we're finding to eat.





However- I had never seen this before.




This is patate e wurst pizza. Aka hotdog and french fry pizza. Isn't that what you think of when you think of Italian food? No? Me neither. I don't think it was Peter's best decision either.

The view from my bedroom window (part 2)

Ah Italy....

This is the view from my bedroom window in Sulmona, Italy. We stayed at Hotel Italia ( a good name if there ever was one) and were awestruck by the beauty of this little town. Sulmona is mostly known for confetti, which are also common at weddings, including ours! We had a beautiful stay in Sulmona, and luckily PEter and I will get to stop by another time as his gradparents village is nearby and weàll stop in to see some more family after Mom and Sissy leave.

This beautiful building was our hotel, and we plan on stopping by again in a few weeks!

Damn Internet Cafes

So I'm trying to type a post in an internet cafe in Florence. Except the computer is slow. And the keyboard is hard, with all these wacky extra letters. And they close in 5 minutes, so they wouldnàt let me get a whole hour and I only got half an hour.

So, my hysterically funny post about eating seafood in Fano will have to wait until another day. This is all you're getting right now. (this letter: à is where the apostrophe is supposed to be. itàs really hard).

I am also trying to upload some photos to Flickr, but the computer is slow. And Iàm probably getting a virus.

Some pictures are up, mostly of food. But I need to go before the computer steals my camera. And my passwords.

We are all having a great time. Driving on the roads here is great, except when you,re in the Cities, then it is terible. I am not looking forward to dropping the car off in Rome. Right in the middle of the city. In the middle of the madness.

Later.

PS The market pictures are from Pratola Serra. The other pictures are from Pompeii

The Problem with Italy

Italy is a beatiful country. The hills are full of huge, old villas and monastaries that stand over well-manicured fields full of great things like grapes and kiwis and figs and tomatoes and olives and lemons and oranges and... The drivers are insane. The relatives are welcoming. The food is amazing. Kimberly and the Krew have been completly overwhelmed by the contained chaos of everything.

Italy also contains some of the most beautiful art in the world, in the form of sculptures, paintings, and architecture, and some of the most friendly people in the world. Well, mostly.

On Saturday, we decided to go visit the Reggia of Caserta, near Pratola Serra. [Caserta is in Southern Italy, close to Napoli, which is an important part for the story.] The guide books call the Reggia the "Versaille of Italy" and sing the praises of the English gardens. Once we got our tickets, we walked over to the bus area to take the 3 km ride to the garden entrance. This is where our story begins.

There was a 20-something guy selling tickets to the train and telling people to line up 'over there.' Two problems: (1) he wasn't so much selling tickets as smoking cigarettes and flirting with the young women in the general vicinity; and (2) Italians, unlike the English or the Americans, do not take well to queuing. The line for the bus wasn't so much a line as it was a horde. The first bus came and went, with our Hero-American-Family standing in the bus' dust, looking completely bewildered and scared. Those little old Italians are not as sweet as they look.

Having experienced this before, I decided I needed to act. As we were the last group pushed off the previous bus, we were first in line for the next bus. As the little Neapolitan women started to encroach upon and pass us, I made sure that we inched forward. As the Sicilian women stood in front of us, I politely explained to them (in my poorest Italian) that the line was behind us and we were actually in the front. [I absorbed enough evil eyes that I had an exorcism that evening. No joke.]

When the bus finally arrived, the contained chaos became uncontained. Old Italians were practically running over us and knocking the Krew down to get on the bus first. When the bus finally stopped rolling, it was actually only a few feet in front of me.

Although a few of the little women were too quick and got on before me, I put my plan in action. With one particulary nice woman and her very pleasant husband right behind me, I blocked the door with my rather large frame and arms. I then turned and told the Krew to get on the bus, blocking everyone else. A few jabs in the ribs and screams of indignation later, we were all on the bus, followed quickly by an angry mob. Fortunately, the heat of the bus lulled everyone to sleep and all their anger was directed back at the husbands, just as intended.

[The woman right behind Kimberly is the one who was jabbing me in the back. I wish I had a better picture, but I was afraid if I actually pointed the camera at her, she would spit on me.]

We spent the next few hours touring the 7 km of garden paths, seeing beautiful fountains, fake Roman ruins, tiny frogs, giant fish, and exotic trees, including a Redwood from the West of America and a Doug Fir from the Northwest of America. Just like home.

On the way back, we decided to walk the 3 km down to the palace. Although we will need to face the hordes of old Italian women again at some point, twice in the same day wasn't worth it.

My first morning in Italy

Ah Italy. We arrived last night, were chauffered by Zio Mimmo and Peter's Dad, and welcomed into a bustling house for dinner with Zia Nina and Zia Rita and her family. What a feast! I certainly won't starve in Italy, although I might gain 50 pounds. That could be a problem. Luckily, the towns are set in beautiful countryside, so walking will be a pleasure.

Peter and I woke up this morning to the church bells. The bells ring for each hour and for each quarter hour. This means lots of bells. It's beautiful now, but can you imagine the noise complaints if they tried this in the cities at home?

And, to top it all off, this is the view outside our bedroom window.

It's not so bad.... I can probably get used to this for a while....

Do you think the Middle has views like this?

...Ciao Italia

We have arrived in Pratola Serra, the hometown of my father's family. After a quick drive down the autostrada from Rome, we ate our bodies weight in food last night for dinner.

A few very Italian things that have happened so far:

We saw this on the plane as we were leaving Boston:

Italian Air Traffic Controllers Strike

Someone in Portland was joking that all three times he has come to Italy, some part of the travel sector is on strike. Luckily, this didn't affect us, as it was only for a few hours on Tuesday.

Then we saw:

Garbage a burning issue for Naples

Apparently in Naples, the trash dumps are full. So they are piling the trash on the streets and burning it. I can't wait to go see it.

I can't wait to see what happens next.

In memory

My father Phil

May 3, 1943-May 24 2006

We love you.

Goodbye USA...

Got Snuggles?

So apparently, they're gone. :( I haven't seen them in almost a week. Sorry if I'm a little sad today, but it's hard to type through the tears.

I guess they are on their way to Europe and will come back eventually. I guess I'm spending the next couple of months with my 'friends' Ben and Jerry. Some friends these guys are: the growling and hissing has calmed down, but now they knock over my food because they think it's funny. Ha Ha Ha, my stomach hurts from laughing so hard.

So sad.

Anyways, since Kimberly isn't here for the snuggling, I had to find someone new to steal snuggles from. I don't know who this guy is, but he seems sufficient for snuggling purposes, even though he is a Mets fan (I hope PEter doesn't get too mad about that).