Sat, 22 Jan 2005

Update No.1 from the wonderful world of Europe


OK well, I've been a horrible person when it comes to actually updating everyone. My apologies. It's been a little hectic and weird trying to get in the groove of things, and this is mostly because there is no groove. (Quick Disney quote for those you who know it. "Beware the groove... the GROOOOVEE...") Anyway, here is an itemized list of the days of my journey so far, but I promise to be more diligent in my updates from now on So:

1/10 - leaving NY Kennedy Airport at 9:05 on an Air France flight 11 which felt strangely familiar except I was less flustered and actually had a brain in my head this time. The flight was quiet and rather uneventful but this sick sense of uneasiness pretty much grew until we landed which was actually on...

... 1/11 When the full realization, which I had not allowed to dawn on me until now, that I was indeed gone, for two months, by myself pretty much and there was no turning back. The no turning back part was the reason for the unwillingness for realization until now. However we got off the flight and proceeded to Paris with my powerful French conversational abilities, which are, unbeknownst to me growing somewhere deep inside me and just waiting to get out. I successfully got us to the right general direction and we found what will later be known as Communist Block Hostel, being in a very nice part of town, very near Karin, easy access to the metro and the like, with breakfast included and simply RETCHED. We got there during lockdown, I mean lockout where they take all of the unsuspecting guests role them around in dirt and grime and make them wander the streets of Paris for hours with no way of cleaning themselves, I mean, don't let you into the rooms from 10 - 3. So, we stored our luggage and dragged our, tired, jet-lagged, dirty, and sad bodies to the nearest phone booth. Where we attempted to call SOMETHING familiar and let them know we were actually alive and... mostly well. So, As much as I've actually used the phone card BEFORE, my ability to remain fully functional was nil and I sat in a phone booth for 30 minutes yelling at the automated lady to SPEAK ENGLISH DAMNIT. Reduced to horribly embarrassing tears I finally just pushed the *4 that was needed, and the automated lady kindly connected me, first to Adam's answer machine and then to Karin's, so much for a friendly voice. At which point, Maria in a failed attempt at helping me remain sane, brought me to a coffee shop where we could get some food and compose ourselves. That pretty much ended up being her drinking an espresso and me crying my eyes out while French people stared at us. Eventually, however, I composed myself enough that II stopped mumbling things like... I just want to go home, and who really cares about physics anyway. Realizing that this was indeed dumb and who was I kidding EVERYONE cares about physics (even though I still wanted to go home). Figuring that a little electronic fun was in order we decided to get my really cool new blackberry unlocked so that I could access my email and actually be reachable while I was here. So, as the American cell phone salesman instructed we headed to the first available cell phone store where we showed them the phone and said, in quite a bit of pantomime... " Can you unlock this please?" to which she very politely said... No. But pointed us to someone who could. And after going through the elaborate pantomime yet again. They said... oh yes sure we can... ooohh WAIT. This is a blackberry... no we can't do that. So we went to another store where, we pantomimed and were again... shot down. So, we now had a very useless but really NEAT phone-like contraption. Anybody want to buy a blackberry? At this point lockout was almost over so we headed back to the horror... ahem... HOSTEL... pardon. And we moved our luggage up to our rooms and as much as I wanted that shower to begin with, I lay down and CRASHED. Waking up at about 6 we headed out for a quick dinner, which turned into a long dinner, which turned into a REALLY long dinner where we managed to plan our ENTIRE trip. Funny we couldn't make ourselves sit down and do it BEFORE we left the country. Now, we went back, to the place that shall from now on remain nameless to read and wind down. But little did we know our friendly roommate was home, and goes to bed at 9 so, we quietly climbed in beds, which any sailor, having been at sea, for a considerable amount of time, would have found to put it lightly very uncomfortable. The towel wrapped in rag placed gently under my head and small piece of... well I don't really know what It was but I heard someone refer to as a blanket, which is really the only reason I knew what to do with it, pulled to my chin the first comforting thought came to me, if I wet the bed, it would be well protected and the hard plastic mattress could be easily wiped clean. With this small bit of solace, I stared into the darkness contemplating how to arrange the number of days mathematically so it seemed shorter until I drifted off to sleep.

1/12 - Don't get me wrong we were having a GREAT time. And we woke up at 3am bright eyed and bushy tailed, and sat around, uncomfortably still as to not wake Josephine, by the loud plastic-y crinkle of our beds. And then we woke up at 6am, bright eyed and bushy tailed, and sat around, uncomfortably still as to not wake Josephine, by the loud plastic-y crinkle of our beds. And then we woke up at 8:30am... really tired. To the sound of Josephine bright eyed and busy tailed not bothering to be still and hence waking us with the loud plastic-y crinkle of her bed. Up and out of the hostel by 10, sneaking past the guards, I mean, desk attendant, and into the sunny streets of Paris. Where, I realized that, though it might have seemed like this trip was going to be a breeze, I hadn't finished my grad school applications. And doing this in a country, where keyboards aren't the same as at home, and I don't really have everything I need, is pretty nerve-wracking, as if it wasn't bad enough. But, somehow I managed to actually finish it and pressing all those "submit" buttons was a good feeling. Now, we had to once again try and tackle the cell phone problem. Which we did, Rather effectively, by spending another $500 on ANOTHER really cool cell phone-like contraption, this one by Sony Ericsson with neat features and the ability for me to use it when I go back if I so desire. All this did take me a few hours however, and we were STARVING. But no rest for the weary. We trekked across town grabbed something on the way, and headed to the Rodin Museum managing to fit in a few more errands, including the train station and the post office. We LUCKILY got there five minutes AFTER it closed. Though we did get to walk around the gardens and pose with all the statues. (Another mindless quote: they showed us "how to dress cool and wear their hair in interesting ways") At which point we trekked back across town, met Karin for drinks and to get my cell phone SIM card. Which was very nice. Good to see a friendly face and nice, as always to see that particular friendly face. We then had a very interesting version of an "American dinner" a cheeseburger but, the cheese wasn't melted it was POURED onto the burger. Which made things a little interesting as far as eating was concerned, but good none -the less and we headed home for another quiet night of staring into darkness. We got there at 8:30 just as Josephine the Big Friendly German (BFG) was getting into bed and managed to actually brush our teeth and wash our faces before we climbed into bed and tried to be tired.

1/13 And today was our last day in Paris, we packed our belongings, slowly as if to prolong our stay, patted our plastic-y beds one last time, looked around at this place that we would never refer to as home, and sadly turned our heads to a new day. (Bursts into random song "sad to say I'm on my way... won't be back for many a day, my heart is down my head is turning around I had to leave a little girl in Kingston Town") well the little girl we left at the hostel was none to happy but she'll get over it. They'll find her a nice home. And so our departure for Cannes was. The TGV is VERY nice and I say that only after some experiences that shall be described in later dates. Which we took down to Avignon, and I relived a little bit of my childhood as I stood looking at the Pont d'Avignon (quick flashback to grandma singing me to sleep, French nursery rhymes ringing in my ears.) And then we headed back, having a VERY successful bout of restaurant conversation with a French women who we ALMOST fooled into thinking we spoke her language. And proceeded down to Cannes where, after the place that shall continue to remain nameless, we stayed in the most LUXURIOUS one star hotel I've ever seen, with a 3 floor walk up, a shower that WORKED... and well does it really matter it had a shower... that WORKED... Getting in a little late, we took a bit of a walk down to the beach and then called it a night.

1/14 Today's the DAY... the sun is shining... the tank is clean... WHAT?!?!? The TANK IS CLEAN!!!... Well that was pretty much the start of our day except replace... "The Tank is clean" with... "Maria is sick". But GOD DAMNIT MARIA GET UP!!!!!... WE'RE GOING TO THE BEACH... and, so she did. AND OOH THE BEACH!!! Glorious, we had beautiful weather, a little cold to actually romp around in a bathing suit but I put my feet in the Mediterranean. And frolicked in the sand and contemplated the concept of the Atom and did all the things you should do on a beach. I made Maria stay much longer and much closer to the water than she would have liked but what are friends for. We decided to explore a bit of the city and so we hiked up, and I say hiked rather than walked because Cannes is not very... how do you say... flat. We found a museum that had the WEIRDEST stuff in it. Like, Middle American ancient artifacts. It was about 10 rooms, but it did have a tower with a panoramic view so, we took some pictures and the museum was surprisingly interesting, regardless of it's randomness. At which point we marched right back down to have some Crepe... mmm chocolate.... And watch the sunset on the beach. All in all a relaxing day, much needed and it actually got me excited about the trip, Which I greatly needed. It also was the beginning of the second official name of this trip, the first being, "Tour de Physics 2005" and the second being... "Fat Camp 2005" because averaging the amount of walking we did, Maria and I should both be about 10 pounds lighter, and in EXCELLENT cardio-vascular health by the time we get back.

1/15 And so the adventure continues. We marched RIGHT on like good Christian soldiers but with much less God, and a little less bloody warfare. At 6:00am we were awake, and by seven we were standing on a platform, breakfast eaten, bags dragged, and lunch bought, waiting for the next train to Nice where we planned to head off to Italy, Florence in particular by way of Pisa for the day. We had carefully planned our trip taking into account layover s in Nice, and some time to explore Pisa. (Another random quote... are you people getting these?? "And he'll be DEAD before DESSERT") except the plan was to be in Florence before dessert, hopefully in time for dinner. In Nice we went to buy our direct ticket to Pisa via the 9:00 train. Marching, still like Christian soldiers which involves a slight crick of the neck and a favoring of the left leg, up to the ticket counter we proudly proclaimed purpose, again like good Christian Soldiers, only to be stared at blankly, and it wasn't even the language barrier this time. We had to take the 8:30 train to Ventimigli and figure out the Italian trains once we were already over the boarder. We quickly dropped the Christian act at this point and returned slightly war torn but still hopeful at our trip yet to come. And so, after a short train ride, of about an hour and a half we arrived in Italy.... HOORAY... or so we THOUGHT. We asked for the next train to Pisa, Maria taking over of course because I have been rendered completely incapable seeing as everyone now spoke Italian. OH, there isn't actually a TRAIN to Pisa we have to go to Pisa via, Genoa that didn't leave for over an hour. And then we had to sit around in Genoa for an hour, to hop a train to Pisa that would get us in just before dinner. Which left us NO time to get to Firenze for dinner and to check into our hotel now did it. OK OK we'll skip Pisa, give us your next train to Firenze then... Yeah ok... They kindly explained that they HAD given us the next train to Firenze... via Genoa and Pisa. Well, at least it'll be in a nice train right? Oh well yeah it's a nice train if you don't mind the faint smell of Pee and the broken blinds, broken air conditioning, no electricity, and lugging your bags from platform to platform just to wait... and wait and wait some more. But 5 trains and 11 hours later... there we were in Firenze, battle worn and broken men. Where we stayed in an even more luxurious one star hotel, which was actually more of a small house with a cute old couple that said "ohh bene", and "ladies ladies" a lot when he wasn't calling us "sir". And so our first Italian meal was had... and boy was that worth the trains. Ravioli with butter and sage, stewed wild boar and Tartuffo for dessert.

1/16 You know that song... the one... DO DO DO DO DO DO DO DO DO DO DO DO... the one they always play when the little birdies wake up in the mornings. Yeah that one... well, that's how today was. It was a good morning, mostly cause we didn't have to carry our luggage. We did however have to take another train, back to Pisa to recreate one of the great failed experiments in Physics. To Pisa and Back, in a Roman Catholic Country, on a Sunday. Well OK, we admit it wasn't the brightest Idea but it was the only one we had at the time. So we hopped that train that we were OH so familiar with, armed with a feather. Getting to Pisa, we walked pretty much straight on through the town and found the Tower, and yup, it was leaning. (Random quote: " The first castle I built, well that one fell over and sank into the swamp, the second, that one burned down fell over THEN sank into the swamp, but the THIRD one... that STOOD UP") We climbed the stairs, which were very dizzying and more difficult than originally anticipated. But we got to the top. Or, so we thought... where there was a nice view... but then we found another staircase... which we climbed and came to a bunch of BELLS... which was a little more lean-y and then we found yet a THIRD staircase which lead to the toppy tip top. Which was VERY lean-y to the point of nausea. But, we dropped the feather nonetheless and, just as Galileo discovered. Were unable to accurately time it. Or to time it at all since... PLEASE... you try looking over that ledge when you're ALREADY leaning. So, we proved that we THINK gravity works but we couldn't really tell you. But Maria did note the fact that it had seven bells one for each of the children in my family of decreasing size to match. So, we thought of you guys... and I miss you. But don't get any funny ideas about me being nice all of a sudden. We then we walked back to the train desperately looking for something to eat but did I mention that it was Sunday in a Roman Catholic country. So we ate at a sandwich shop that pretty much had the taste equivalent of cafeteria food but it was food, so I couldn't complain. And back to Firenze, where we BOOKED it to the galleria dell' academia which houses the famous sculpture of David and some other paintings that no one ever talks about but were quite interesting. Unfortunately someone got this sick idea that it would be good to mix in some modern art and they very nearly ruined the exhibit. Luckily the "old man with varicose veins leg" or " the phantom shoe" was not horrible enough to overshadow the truly awe inspiring presence of David. Also housed in the same museum was a really interesting collection of musical instruments collected by the Medici family. They had a lot of audio and visual stuff that described it, in English and I actually learned quite a bit about the instruments. Yeah, that was some of my music dork coming out. But Maria was patient while I painstakingly read and listened to everything. We then walked around a bit more, found a hole in the wall restaurant down some side street that was very good. And then headed back for some much needed rest.

1/17 - Today, was a science day. It was planned that we would ask the tourist office if they had anything in particular that physics students, namely us, would find particularly interesting and could you please point the way. Well, the man at the tourist office spoke very good, very FAST English and promptly gave us a 15-minute dissertation about many things none of which actually had anything to do with our question. At the end of which we were no closer to being helped but he put a little satisfied check in his "USA" box, and turned to the next bewildered tourist. So, we headed for the one thing that actually said scienza, the historical museum of science. We were actually looking for Gauss' notebooks, which were rumored to be in Florence and if they were going to be there why not look in the history of science museum. After walking over there, we painstakingly looked at every astrolabe and compass they laid out for us. Passed by a good 6 people we took likely twice as long as the average tourist. There was, a fabulous recreation of Galileo's famous ramps and other mechanics experiments, which we got to see demonstrated. We got to see the very magical middle finger of Galileo himself. Flipping us all the bird even after his death... take THAT Catholic Church. And other interesting, and very old electro-magnetic experiments and some wax sculptures of mangled babies. Honestly I prefer electrostatics. We also had the brilliant idea to become science reenactors; if they can do it with war we can do it with science. I'd like to build recreations of old telescopes and experiments, dress up in funny old clothes and reenact famous experiments. I know we totally topped the chart in dorkdom. We met some interesting people, including a women, a science teacher of middle schoolers in New Hampshire who was obviously not used to not being the smartest person in the room and quickly walked away from us when we could explain, and give a brief historical background of pretty much everything she mentioned. We posed the same question we had to the tourist office to the only women in the museum who seemed to speak English and she nearly lost her job trying to help us... but help us she did. She knew where Gauss's notebooks were, and all about how due to bureaucratic nonsense we would never see them (they happened to be about 100 feet from us in an upper floor of the museum). But she did give us a directory of museums and the number of a few places. None of which really seemed that interesting or accessible so we decided to waste some time in an Internet cafˇ until dinner and bed.

1/18 - Today, our last day in Firenze, was spent walking around, the Boboli gardens. They were indeed fantastic but we spent most of our time looking for a fat man. We saw MANY fat men actually but the particular one was made of stone and riding on a turtle. We just HAD to see him but mostly so that I could say I really HAD seen him as opposed to just SAYING I had seen him for pure comedic value. Well, after quite of bit of wandering, and a good bit of hiking, since if you've ever been to the Boboli gardens you find out very quickly that they are not indeed flat as some might have you believe. We got there just in time for things to start getting ugly and we actually found some gardeners cutting off all of the leaves from the bushes to leave very attractive sticks. I did find one flower and I strategically placed it and took a very attractive picture. We saw some birds that looked strangely mangled. And we spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out in what gruesome way had these ducks been attacked in order to leave them in such a state. We thought that had been maliciously caught by a porcupine, and we laughed at them and took pictures but then we realized that they had had their wings clipped, very poorly I might add, and we felt bad and then laughed at them and took pictures. We walked around a little more, and having found the fat man, and directly NEXT to the fat man a ginormous grotto the likes of which I have never seen. A truly fantastic structure with the most interesting display of natural sculpture. Then it was time to proceed on to Rome, which was very interesting. The train ride was nice, not fabulous but not nearly as horrific as train rides passed. We got into Rome at around 5, and took the bus minding very carefully to follow the directions to the hotel. Since two physicists are incapable of counting to THREE (random quote: "one, two, FIVE.... Three sir") we got off at the wrong stop but have no fear WE'LL WALK. After all this WAS fat camp 2005 and we didn't mind this heavy luggage it was a breeze. Well, about a mile and 15 minutes of lost later. We flagged down a taxi in the middle of the road threw our bags in, and jumped in right as the light changed to green. Luckily when we got to the hotel, we didn't actually have a room. Remind me not to make Internet reservations, especially short notice. So the owners, rather apologetically, carried our luggage another block or so to a TWO STAR hotel, where we were to spend the night and return for the other four nights in the morning. Oh glorious, a hotel that gives you SOAP... and a TV with 20 channels, none of which in English, but that's OK, it's TV isn't it and matching decor. You never really realize how important matching decor is until you go without. Tired, achy and ready for bed we decided to head out for dinner and make a night of it. So we sat for a long dinner, and then headed back to our lovely TWO STAR hotel for the night. Gorging ourselves on bad Italian Pop we fell easily into dreamland.

1/19 Glumly packing our stuff after our lovely included breakfast at our TWO STAR hotel we said goodbye and set off back to our little one star hotel only to find out we got a free bathroom attached to our room. Which was really awesome until we realized that said bathroom had a few problems, one is that it was not actually part of the original pluming it was a sort of port-o-potty afterthought that they plastered into the room to make a profit. Which suited me just fine since it was still a free bathroom, until we discovered that the toilet didn't actually work, but we only realized this AFTER it had been used so the two of us staring deep into the bowl trying to determine the least disgusting way to make the toilet paper go down must have been quite a sight. Well, I am getting a little ahead of myself. Oh just HAVING room when we came back in the morning would have been too easy. So we dropped our luggage at the owner's apartment and went to see Rome while our room was actually prepared. The tourist office in Rome was MUCH more helpful than in Florence and we actually sat there for quite some time pouring over brochures and pamphlets and in a short time we had our trip planned. We headed toward the university to make arrangements to see the museum of physics and the museum of mathematics both which were housed in the respective departments at the university. We finally found the physics museum and made arrangements to come see it the next day in very slow but comprehensible Italian. The Math department however seemed to not be very interested in sharing their math museum as it was behind a closed door so we decided to come back the next day anyway and give it another shot. We then headed over to the Pantheon, which I frequently confuse with the Parthenon, but that's next week. It was much more impressive than I had originally expected and my structural Mechanics mind started doing stress diagrams and DAMN. That's some cool stuff. So I was significantly reverent, we saw the last of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Raphael, who is buried there and then we headed over to a little coffee shop on the via Giulia. Maria swore up and down that it was the best coffee in Rome and actually she was right, perhaps in Italy or even all the world. We've been back every day since. We headed to the Fontana de Trevi, which, everybody goes to when they are in Rome so we went. And well you should go to that is SERIOUSLY impressive. As ho-hum as I was about seeing it I'm glad I went. We threw the traditional two coins in over our shoulders and to ensure that I wouldn't look back I booked it RIGHT out of that piazza. Hey, I really wanted my wish to come true. We had some time to kill before dinner so we went to where EVERYBODY goes when they have time to kill...

The NATIONAL PASTA MUSEUM

That's right folks there is an ENTIRE museum about pasta. Didn't know there was so much to learn did you. Well, there isn't actually but we had an hour-long tour of the pasta museum filled with little catch phrases and the same facts, sometimes even the same exhibits quite a few times. But it was worth it just to say we went to the national pasta museum. Then another boring, wow I walked 10 miles and I'm hungry and TIRED kind of night. Dinner and Bed.

1/20 - So today we went back to the University in the morning to make good on the arrangements we made yesterday. The physics museum was pretty awesome. It had Fermi's original radiation experiments and lots of pictures of him and other famous scientists, all standing around together like they WEREN'T really famous awesome people. After walking around there for a bit and making the poor Italian student who was assigned to sit there, a bit uncomfortable we headed out. We really would have gone to the Mathematics museum but we both, almost simultaneously made the executive decision that it was SCAARREY. SO, we walked right on by with the added incentive that we probably wouldn't have understood ANYTHING since it was all in Italian. But, walking out of those hallowed halls was a breath of fresh air and the idea of grad school once again receded into the background. Walking down to a church, I know a novel idea in Rome, we found the museum of musical instruments, which housed some of the oldest instruments in the world, quite a few beautiful and rare instruments from the 19th and 20th century, and even one of the three original pianos constructed by Cristofi. It took us quite some time to get through all the rooms and they aren't even done putting the museum together. It was one of the largest collections of musical instruments I've ever seen, needless to say, I was impressed. We took the bus from there to the Piazza di Popolo, which... believe it or not... had a FOUNTAIN in it. Not a very big one but three not very big ones... and a big stolen stick from Egypt. It also had some rather lousy street performers. An organ grinder with no monkey and a statue guy who wore a sheet and a mask, and kept moving. So we headed down to the Spanish steps, famous for being the one place where is socially acceptable to START a conversation with "come have sex with me" But we managed to escape unscathed and do what any twenty something pair of girls would do while in Rome, that's right do like the Romans... SHOP. So we did... and BOY did we shop. And we found... well, we found NOTHING. For all the bragging about high fashion we were very disappointed in the state of shopping here in Italy. So we cut our losses, got some more of the worlds best coffee and after I managed to contract a SPLITTING headache we made our way back to the hotel. Walking from the bus to our hotel, in one of the LEAST exciting parts of Rome we found a great skirt for Maria, bought it and went home feeling satisfied. I basically stared at the ceiling for a bit wishing the Ibuprofen I had bought would work, but... Italians apparently know NOTHING of pain (quote: that is the sound of ultimate suffering). So, eventually I managed to fall asleep subjecting Maria to a night without dinner.

1/21 - we woke up... STARVING. Due to the lack of nutrition the night before we decided to get some lunch but we wanted to head over to the Vatican first since that was the stuff on the agenda today. We wandered around some and found this really cute, and soon to find out DISGUSTING little restaurant. We were serenaded by the tunes of Snoop Dogg, Jay-Z and Beanie-Man, among others while we ate. (N.B. we were in the VATICAN). And so we proceeded to said "holy place" now I say holy place with quotations because the Vatican is by far the LEAST holy place I've ever seen. It is a big pillar rising above the rest symbolizing what is truly wrong with the Catholic Church today. We're standing in the CAVERNOUS, beautifully decorated Basilica with flowers and inlaid Marble and statues and paintings by famous artists with more side vestibules than I'd ever seen with more sculptures, mosaics, huge alters, candles, and pretty much anything you can think of. And then there are strategically placed collection boxes. Like, you could sell this place and feed the poor for generations. Screw the poor; you could feed half of the worlds population. You could feed the poor just by simply scraping off some of the gold leaf hear and there. The lack of reverence in the basilica was astounding. I feel compelled when I walk into a church to have a sort of decency for the worshippers and the particular deity being honored. But here there was nothing sacred. Oh sure it's one of the most holy sites in Christianity. But nobody cared. They were snapping pictures, talking, answering their cell phones, and pretty much anything else rude you can think of. So, in order to make a point, I promptly broke 9 of the Ten Commandments, the 10th to be continued on Saturday since I couldn't very well break the Sabbath, not on the Sabbath. Oh yeah, and sorry Mom and Dad, I had to say some horrible things but, it was all in the name of badgering religion. There were also more confessions than I've ever seen, even if we take into account the proportion and size of the building. And there were many languages to confess in, another fundamental flaw in the workings of Christianity. Go ahead... feel guilty for everything. Repent... REPENT. So, we walked among the dead for a bit, which, was interesting but not gory enough to be awe-inspiring. And then we climbed the dome. In case you were wondering... when walking up all the steps... and NO we didn't take the elevator. The dome seems A LOT bigger. But, we managed to loose a few pounds and avoid heart disease all in the same afternoon so I'd say today was affective. We really wanted to go see all the artifacts that the Catholic Church had plundered from various "heathens" over the years but the museum closed early than it said in our little guide so we missed it, and the Sistine chapel. Which is a shame but it gives me a reason to come back to Rome. So we did what any self-respecting person who has spent all day in the Vatican does... we went SHOPPING. Since I had lost a glove somewhere along the way, (quote: thank you for bringing up such painful memories while you're at it why don't you give me a paper cut and poor lemon juice in it.) I decided it was time to buy some nice Italian leather gloves. And since we weren't ACTUALLY looking for clothes we found really great outfits at this particularly Italian shop, I bought my gloves. We had a nice leisurely dinner and then went home to bed.

1/22 - Which brings us right up to today and the REASON that, I have so much time to write such eloquent thoughts out. My second to worst fear has come true and Maria has spent the night puking her guts out... mmm Yummy. So, we pushed our trip a day back and decided to spend the day in our hotel room, I'll work some and she'll work on not throwing up anymore. It seemed to work out for everyone. We made some calls and it seems as if our original schedule is going to be pushed back a day since Ferry's don't RUN on Sundays. And, so we will have time to see the ruins like the Palatine Hill and Coliseum tomorrow, instead of today.


posted at: 07:42 | path: | permanent link to this entry