I take a quick break from recording our Italian experiences to tell of some more recent activity in London. Brianne and I have been awfully busy with comings and goings in the last two weeks!
The major "going" was the departure of our dear flatmate Matt, who trundled off to Spain for several weeks before heading back to Australia for the rest of the year. He's been the best friend we've had in our building, developing a wonderful rapport of shared interests in The Office and Scrubs, witty banter and purile practical jokes. We kept each other in stitches most of the time, and we're sad to see him go. The silver lining is he's storing a lot of his bulkier luggage with us during his time in Spain and will return to stay with us a couple of days in June before heading Down Under.
As a final group activity, the three of us went to see Spring Awakening, a Tony Award-winning musical based on the play of the same name which was soon to close it's London engagement. The show was fantastic, a mixture of bold theatrical themes of innocence and sexual discovery in 19th century Germany, infused with a modern rock score.
We've also had two arrivals in the last few days. Our pals Christine and Darrell from Ottawa are staying in another room of our building for the next few days, taking in the sights of London before heading off on a bus tour of Scotland. I did my best to give accurate directions for them to follow to our door, and after a consultation with the all-seeing all-knowing Wifey and a revision, it seemed to work out okay! We've got The Tower and Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese to look forward to.
Brianne and I also met up with family friends Linda and Jim Collacott of Niagara Falls. We met them for lunch near my office and received a lovely care package from home by way of Mom. Things we just can't get here, like NeoCitran and Swedish Berries. Yay! So nice to have faces from home.
For the past week or so, B and I have been in Britain's Got Talent mode, checking out the semi-finals each night. This is of course the showcase for the "worldwide media darling" Susan Boyle. As nice a story as she makes, we're more interested in the street dance groups which have also made it to the finals.
Check out "Diversity" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pg3fvanDDc
and "Flawless" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MamSKGd4y28&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GrOMLylvhQ&feature=related
More to come on Italy soon!
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Thursday, May 21, 2009
When the moon hits your eye . . . punch him back
We hopped an early train from Rome to Naples, a reasonably comfortable two and a half hour journey. Once we arrived at our destination, however, we quickly formulated the opinion that Napoli will henceforth be referred to in our memories as "The purgatory through which one must pass to get to Amalfi." The city immediately gave the impression of being dirtier, more cramped, and less friendly than Rome, in direct accordance with what our Rome hostel mates had warned. And clever me, I had pre-booked two nights there, thinking it was a decent home base for visiting Pompeii -- which it was, but offered nothing else to recommend itself. Luckily, the hostel we stayed at was top-notch with a very friendly and helpful owner, and we managed to spend all our time of the next two days out of town.
Continuing in our good fortune at finding fellow countrymen abroad, Brianne ran into two young guys from Brampton purchasing their tickets to Pompeii. We joined them and an American couple currently based in Germany for a trek into the historic ruins in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. One of the Canuck lads had a passionate enthusiasm for Pompeii and offered to be our guide for the day. As it turned out, enthusiasm does not always equal factual accuracy; he was positive the mountain dominating the landscape was too close to be the real Vesuvius, we completely passed by the House of the Faun that he was looking for because the characterestic statue denoting it wasn't as large as he expected it to be from the pictures he'd seen, and the preserved counters with holes in them (see below) were described by him as "public toilets," rather than being -- as we learned from a guidebook afterwards -- "food pots." Doesn't matter, though, he was a terrific guy and we all had a great time.
The ruins of Pompeii are expansive; you're told it's a "city," of course, but the reality of the size doesn't really hit you until you're exploring it. We wandered in and out of dwellings, checked out the amphitheatre, and marvelled at mosaics and frescoes. Our admittedly morbid group goal, however, was to make sure we "saw some dead people." We were searching for the casts of the remains of those who had not escaped the wrath of the volcano. We found them towards the end of our days, and they are eerily fascinating.
One site within the city that was very popular was the brothel. Seriously, people were lined up outside, it was hilarious, but of course we were there too. Within the recently excavated and restored edifice were separate rooms with stone beds in them, and over the doors to each room were frescoes which quite clearly depicted . . . shall we say, "menu options?" What happens in Pompeii, stays in Pompeii. Following our long and dusty exploration of the ruins, we enjoyed the company of our North American friends over some delectable local pizza.
The next day we made our way down to the docks to hop a ferry out to the Isle of Capri. We had read amazing things in the Lonely Planet guide about the beauty of the island, particularly of The Blue Cove, a grotto accessible only by row boat with hauntingly blue water due to light refraction and white sand. We opted for a motor boat tour of around the entire island shore, with the Cove at the end. The tour was well worth it, showing the beauty of the craggy mountain cliffs and mirrored water and inlet grottoes, all the while inspiring the theme from Jurassic Park to run through our heads.
Once we made it to the Blue Cove, however, we realized it was a complete rip-off. They charge you for the row boat into the cave PLUS cave entry, you're only in there for about 4 minutes, you can barely take a recognizable picture (see below), and all the while your row boat captain is belting out bad opera in the echoing darkness trying to drum up a tip! Sheesh! Well, live and learn.
After regaining our land legs, we ventured up to the main town of the island. Ventured? More like "scaled." It was a 25 minute uphill walk to Capri Town. Along the way we kept passing people on their way down who so compassionately assured us that we were LESS than half-way there. Still, we met a couple of gals from Chicago with whom we completed our climb, took in the admittedly astounding views from the summit, and had a little lunch. Capri Town is packed to the gills with high-end retailers (Gucci, Cartier, etc) and five-star hotels, so there was a lot of just window shopping on our part. We made our way back down and indulged in some gelato which was thoroughly earned, then said goodbye to our Chicago gals, hung out on very rocky beach for a little while and took the ferry back to Napoli.
One thing that made us both laugh: when walking back to our hostel, we saw in the window of a McDonalds a picture on the menu for a grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich entitled "McToast."
Continuing in our good fortune at finding fellow countrymen abroad, Brianne ran into two young guys from Brampton purchasing their tickets to Pompeii. We joined them and an American couple currently based in Germany for a trek into the historic ruins in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. One of the Canuck lads had a passionate enthusiasm for Pompeii and offered to be our guide for the day. As it turned out, enthusiasm does not always equal factual accuracy; he was positive the mountain dominating the landscape was too close to be the real Vesuvius, we completely passed by the House of the Faun that he was looking for because the characterestic statue denoting it wasn't as large as he expected it to be from the pictures he'd seen, and the preserved counters with holes in them (see below) were described by him as "public toilets," rather than being -- as we learned from a guidebook afterwards -- "food pots." Doesn't matter, though, he was a terrific guy and we all had a great time.
The ruins of Pompeii are expansive; you're told it's a "city," of course, but the reality of the size doesn't really hit you until you're exploring it. We wandered in and out of dwellings, checked out the amphitheatre, and marvelled at mosaics and frescoes. Our admittedly morbid group goal, however, was to make sure we "saw some dead people." We were searching for the casts of the remains of those who had not escaped the wrath of the volcano. We found them towards the end of our days, and they are eerily fascinating.
One site within the city that was very popular was the brothel. Seriously, people were lined up outside, it was hilarious, but of course we were there too. Within the recently excavated and restored edifice were separate rooms with stone beds in them, and over the doors to each room were frescoes which quite clearly depicted . . . shall we say, "menu options?" What happens in Pompeii, stays in Pompeii. Following our long and dusty exploration of the ruins, we enjoyed the company of our North American friends over some delectable local pizza.The next day we made our way down to the docks to hop a ferry out to the Isle of Capri. We had read amazing things in the Lonely Planet guide about the beauty of the island, particularly of The Blue Cove, a grotto accessible only by row boat with hauntingly blue water due to light refraction and white sand. We opted for a motor boat tour of around the entire island shore, with the Cove at the end. The tour was well worth it, showing the beauty of the craggy mountain cliffs and mirrored water and inlet grottoes, all the while inspiring the theme from Jurassic Park to run through our heads.
Once we made it to the Blue Cove, however, we realized it was a complete rip-off. They charge you for the row boat into the cave PLUS cave entry, you're only in there for about 4 minutes, you can barely take a recognizable picture (see below), and all the while your row boat captain is belting out bad opera in the echoing darkness trying to drum up a tip! Sheesh! Well, live and learn.
After regaining our land legs, we ventured up to the main town of the island. Ventured? More like "scaled." It was a 25 minute uphill walk to Capri Town. Along the way we kept passing people on their way down who so compassionately assured us that we were LESS than half-way there. Still, we met a couple of gals from Chicago with whom we completed our climb, took in the admittedly astounding views from the summit, and had a little lunch. Capri Town is packed to the gills with high-end retailers (Gucci, Cartier, etc) and five-star hotels, so there was a lot of just window shopping on our part. We made our way back down and indulged in some gelato which was thoroughly earned, then said goodbye to our Chicago gals, hung out on very rocky beach for a little while and took the ferry back to Napoli.One thing that made us both laugh: when walking back to our hostel, we saw in the window of a McDonalds a picture on the menu for a grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich entitled "McToast."
Monday, May 18, 2009
There are no cats in America (but there are Canadians in Rome!)
Hurray! We landed in Rome and right away we were off. The weather was fantastic and we arrived at the main bus and train terminal around noon. Our hostel was only a short walk away and located in a building that we would later come to know as ‘The standard hostel building’; mainly a dark and worn out building but go 2 or more stories above the street and it’s a cosy world of bunk beds in shared dorms and a tiny kitchen that everyone will attempt and succeed to fit into during free pasta night. After setting down our bags and getting directions from the front desk, we set out into the big, wide and sunny world of Rome. And somehow almost immediately Andrew was able t capture a man on a vespa going by. Eddie Izzard entered into our heads and it became a running joke for us – as always. After about twenty minutes of walking we ended up in a front of a very large, white building with statues at every crest. We later found out this was the monument for the unknown soldier and is also one of the most hated sights for the locals as they consider it an eyesore. There was also a giant column and ruins that looked as there had been many pillars. It was around this point that I spotted the Coliseum off in the distance. Andrew however did not spot it as he was still checking out the buildings around us. When he wanted to stop to check the map I moved him slightly to the right – pointing his head in the direction of the Coliseum – and asked him if we really needed to do that. The next couple of seconds were he thought about it, spotted the Coliseum and then recognized it for what it was was beautiful. I wished I had filmed it on camera. We bought our tickets and made our way in, hassled by offers of tour guides all the way. It looks exactly like the pictures and footage I have seen of it on t.v except smaller on the inside than you would think.. It is a pity that all the marble and statues that would have once decorated it have been stripped off or fallen and destroyed through the centuries. There were plenty of people walking around but it wasn’t an uncomfortable number as May is still not high season. As we walked around and paused to take pictures we were approached by a middle aged couple to take their picture and get ours taken in return. When I handed over the camera to the woman and posed with Andrew she lifted it up and very elfishly called out ‘Say Sex!” They were Canadians from British Columbia with a tour and they had spunk. I like people with spunk. 
After a few hours of wandering around the Coliseum we moved onto the joint sight of the Palatine, which is right across from the Coliseum. I don’t know what it means, but what it is is a hill on which once rested the most wealthy addresses in all of Rome. Down the slope within the same area was the Roman Forum or as we actors refer to it: Where Julius Caesar uttered “Et Tu Brute?” and someone else said “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears!” By this point we had spent almost six hours looking at ruins, so you could say we were all ruined out.
The following day we woke up bright and early (and a bit bleary eyed) to go to the Vatican. We took the Metro which was much wider and more roomy than the tube in London, and arrived only a 10 minute walk away from Vatican City at around 8:30 a.m. The beauty of arriving so early meant that there were no crowds and some of the cleaners were still at work. La Pieta was still being wiped down by one of the few people who are permitted behind her glass protection and there was a zamboni cleaning all the marble floors in preparation for the thousands of people who would soon be walking all over them. Immediately we made our way to the summit of St. Peters Dome – a massive undertaking for someone (me) who is not the most fond of heights. We took the savings of 2 euros and climbed the stairs rather than taking the lift. At the first opening we were still within the dome and immediately over the canopy of the high alter. Directly below our feet were the six feet tall letters that quoted “You are Peter…” and around us were the amazing mosaics that can be seen from the ground but from where we were standing were HUGE. From there we climbed even higher and onto a slant to get to the peak where we were greeted with a view of Rome in the morning. It’s blue and dusty. And white and brown. And loud and ancient. You have to see it for yourself. After a very careful descent we took a stroll through the Basilica and then made our way to a lunch of Pizza and pasta. After lunch it was off to the Vatican museums. (Note: If the Basilica is free then they really make up their weight in this fare – it is 14 euros each to enter the museums and there is no special price if all you want to see is the Sistine Chapel – it’s at the end of the tour and no sooner.) Although the tour takes you through artwork of all the Italian masters, Botticelli, Da Vinci, the Roman statues that stood all across Rome, amazing frescoes and mosaics, everyone is really just there to see the Chapel. There is no point trying to take a picture of it – for one there are the guards stationed everywhere constantly repeating ‘No Pictures’ and secondly it is so ill lit to preserve the paint that no camera, no matter how expensive would be able to do it justice. As per before, the pictures in your art books are probably the clearest you will see. With that done we headed through the streets of Rome to stop at the Piazza Navona (Gelato!), the Pantheon (big but boring) and the Trevi Fountain (stunning, just stunning.) All that was left to do was topple into bed and sleep. Don’t ask me how many stairs I had climbed in those first 2 days – I had stopped counting when I reached one thousand.
After a few hours of wandering around the Coliseum we moved onto the joint sight of the Palatine, which is right across from the Coliseum. I don’t know what it means, but what it is is a hill on which once rested the most wealthy addresses in all of Rome. Down the slope within the same area was the Roman Forum or as we actors refer to it: Where Julius Caesar uttered “Et Tu Brute?” and someone else said “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears!” By this point we had spent almost six hours looking at ruins, so you could say we were all ruined out.The following day we woke up bright and early (and a bit bleary eyed) to go to the Vatican. We took the Metro which was much wider and more roomy than the tube in London, and arrived only a 10 minute walk away from Vatican City at around 8:30 a.m. The beauty of arriving so early meant that there were no crowds and some of the cleaners were still at work. La Pieta was still being wiped down by one of the few people who are permitted behind her glass protection and there was a zamboni cleaning all the marble floors in preparation for the thousands of people who would soon be walking all over them. Immediately we made our way to the summit of St. Peters Dome – a massive undertaking for someone (me) who is not the most fond of heights. We took the savings of 2 euros and climbed the stairs rather than taking the lift. At the first opening we were still within the dome and immediately over the canopy of the high alter. Directly below our feet were the six feet tall letters that quoted “You are Peter…” and around us were the amazing mosaics that can be seen from the ground but from where we were standing were HUGE. From there we climbed even higher and onto a slant to get to the peak where we were greeted with a view of Rome in the morning. It’s blue and dusty. And white and brown. And loud and ancient. You have to see it for yourself. After a very careful descent we took a stroll through the Basilica and then made our way to a lunch of Pizza and pasta. After lunch it was off to the Vatican museums. (Note: If the Basilica is free then they really make up their weight in this fare – it is 14 euros each to enter the museums and there is no special price if all you want to see is the Sistine Chapel – it’s at the end of the tour and no sooner.) Although the tour takes you through artwork of all the Italian masters, Botticelli, Da Vinci, the Roman statues that stood all across Rome, amazing frescoes and mosaics, everyone is really just there to see the Chapel. There is no point trying to take a picture of it – for one there are the guards stationed everywhere constantly repeating ‘No Pictures’ and secondly it is so ill lit to preserve the paint that no camera, no matter how expensive would be able to do it justice. As per before, the pictures in your art books are probably the clearest you will see. With that done we headed through the streets of Rome to stop at the Piazza Navona (Gelato!), the Pantheon (big but boring) and the Trevi Fountain (stunning, just stunning.) All that was left to do was topple into bed and sleep. Don’t ask me how many stairs I had climbed in those first 2 days – I had stopped counting when I reached one thousand.
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