Introducing... Evelyn
Ev and I are really dumb. Halfway through our trip it finally dawns on us that the camera geek should stick to posting pics, and the ex-journalism turned law student should be the one documenting our journeys. Thus, she has been added, and will be the story writer from now on in =)
~ JCL 22:21 - Firenze, Italy
Pics - Part II
Here's some more pics. In Firenze (Florence) now, this internet place has USB slots on the front of the computer, makes life a lot easier! But the connection is still slow, so will have to post more later...
Marseille, France:Gigantic flower pots!!!
Palm branches being given out for Palm Sunday service
Train Station -- its inside and outside at the same time!
The view from the top of the steps leading from the train station
The view from the bottom of the steps we had to climb with our packs to get back to the train station!
I give up, it's taking too long and I'm tired. Bedtime, Ciao!
~ JCL 22:31 - Firenze, Italy
Day 5 - April 11
The train destination for the day was Genova, Italy, but on the way, we stopped at Monaco. In a span of 45 mins (to catch the next train out), Ev and I split up. I ran all the way to the top of the hill where the Monaco Palace was, took a million pics, found the post office to mail postcards and buy Monaco stamps, and ran back down. In the process I learnt that Grace Kelly married Prince Rainier III and became royalty. Something about it stirred up a lot of talk in Hollywood when she did that, but didn't understand why. There's something about Kings and Queen and royalty that I get a kick out of.
Because Monaco is a different country from France, we technically could get our passport stamped. Of course with the whole European Union thing, we don't get stampped anywhere. The tourist information centre offered Monaco stampping as free souvenirs for tourist, so of course I made sure we got it haha! And the funny thing is that they pronounce the country "Mon-AH-co" like with a fobby accent similar to how my parents pronounce "Club Monaco". Made me laugh =)
Got back on the train -- and it was a crazy train with NO lights! We're in the station trying to find our seats in the train, and experienced our very first Harry Potter-like train with the little cabins and doors. Of course, it was kinda hard looking for our seats in the dark, and we finally stumbled into the right cabin. There were already two people there, a guy from Toronto, and a girl from Ireland. They were both students in Scotland travelling for spring break (they get a month off, supposedly to study, but everyone just travels instead).
In this train it kinda smelt funny, an odd combination of pee and tuna. We eventually figured out where the tuna smell was coming from as a can rolled out from under one of the seats! The seats are three side by side facing another three side by side in each cabin, so Ev saw it rolling towards my bag, which I luckily picked up before the tuna water reached my stuff. Mark, the Canadian on the train, volunteered to get towels from the bathroom and wipe it all up. It's nice to have guys around, I have no idea what we would have done if it was just us girls, it was pretty gross!
Funny thing about being in a train without lights is that for the most part it's fine cause it's bright outside and there are lots of big windows, but as soon as you get into a tunnel (and there are lots since we were travelling from France to Italy) it's PITCH black. It was so black that one time we were commenting on how we can't even see our hands in front of our faces, and then we left the tunnel, and we could see that all four of us were staring at our hands, it was SO funny!
Got to Genova, and wandered around trying to figure out where to go. First Italian city, so we hadn't gotten used to the language yet. Luckily a really nice Italian lady saw us wandering down the street (we were actually going in the right direction), and in English asked us if we needed help. So nice of her!
Our B&B was really nice, the lady who ran it took the time to show us a map of the city, pointed out good places to eat, where people hang out, where we should stay away from at night, etc. And since the place we were staying at was her home, there was a kitchen to use, and free internet on her computer! Of course it was another non-QWERTY keyboard, but this time it was just the Y and Z switched (I typed a lot of "zou" that night) and messed up punctuation. Was a lot easier to type, except when I had to type my name -- Janez, sigh!
Wandered around the neighborhood for a bit and then for dinner we went to this great little place run by three italian grampas who were brothers. There were so nice to us, and kept giving us food to try since everything was local food. Was so yummy. Then back to home to sleep, but it was FREEZING, so we used two comforters instead of one haha!
~ JCL 23:12 - Roma, Italy
Day 4 - April 10
Monday morning, we were supposed to take the boat out to see Chateau d'If, but because the skies looked stormy, all the runs were cancelled. Instead, we wandered around the Vieux Port and watched as fishermen brought in their catch to the live fish market! It was great, one stall had live octopuses!!!! These slimey things kept crawling all over, slithering out of the bucket. The market lady had to keep plopping them back into the tray while trying to sell fish to other people. At one point one of the octopuses managed to escape, and landed on the ground. She scooped him back up and dropped him back into the tray! The locals thought we were amusing for being so amused about live seafood hahah!
Then we trained towards Nice, but along the way we stopped at Cannes. It's nice, with a boardwalk and beach, but it's so americanized, very different from Marseille. The weather wasn't great, so we just wandered for a bit, took some pictures (including one of Gregory Peck's handprint in their walk of fame), and got back on the train.
By the time we arrived in Nice, the sky had cleared, and the weather was glorious! Our hotel even had cute little french balconies from the bathroom and from the bedroom -- of course we took pics haha! Wandered down the main strip, and onto the boardwalk by the sea. What an amazing view! Actually reminded me a lot of Laguna Beach in California. It was great, we just hung around, took tons of pics, watched the sun go down, and then went for dinner.
After dinner we went to the internet cafe... where we experienced our first non-QWERTY keyboards. Anyone who talked to me on MSN that night will have noticed that my typing was SLOW. The Q and the A were reversed, the M was next to the L, all the punctution was in different places. I was typing with two fingers practically!!! We eventually gave up, and decided to just go home and sleep =)
~ JCL 22:50 - Roma, Italy
PICS!
Very slow connection though, hope this works!
At the airport when we left, see the GINORMOUS rucksacks!
Tower Bridge in London
EY UK office!!
Crazy elevator in Marseille
Marseille Vieux Port sunset
I give up, the connection here is too slow. More pics will have to come later!
~ JCL 01:55 - Genova, Italy
Random Things
In Marseille, we experienced the world's smallest elevator. The sign said it could fit max 3 people, but we could only get one of us plus our pack into the elevator at a time. It was hilarious =) I have pics, if I can figure out how to upload. Maybe tonight after dinner.
I brought with me my old running shoes from university, figure I'd kill them and throw them out when I get home. They are already busted haha! I think they are still wearable, though Ev doesn't. I've been wearing them anyway, and have yet to find shoes of comparable value here in Italy.
When I got to France, I had trouble recalling my old OAC French vocabulary. And for some stupid reason, every time I tried to think and speak in French, some element of Mandarin would pop into the sentences! I had the same problem in China, French would come out of my mouth instead of Mandarin. Well, after being in France for 4 days, I was able to communicate relatively adequately in French, but now we're in Italy. Prob is that I know more Spanish than Italian, and many Italian words sound like Spanish words. Plus adding that I was just speaking in French a day or two ago, I'm tripping all over myself again! At least it's a mix of French Spanish and Italian, without any Mandarin!
Ev and I seriously sleep every time we get on a moving vehicle. It's really quite funny! So far this has been a really great relaxing trip, but I know once we hit Roma on Good Friday, it'll be nuts!
Being in Europe is like hanging out with Kwan and Karel all the time. Everyone smokes everywhere! I'm getting so used to second-hand smoke now, not that I wasn't already getting used to it haha! But seriously, without many ads for cigarettes the way the US is plastered with billboards, I'm surprized the number of people, young and old, male and female, health conscious and not, who all smoke.
Last but not least, molto grazi to Jane for answering all my text messages about whether we can drink the tap water here haha!
Anyhow, dinner time soon. Ciao!
~ JCL 19:05 - Genova, Italy
Day 3 - April 9
Got up early to take the train into Avignon. Do you remember the old children's song about Avignon? "Sur le pont d'Avignon, l'on y danse l'on y danse"? No worries, I bought a music box thing with the song in case you can't figure out what I'm referring to haha! Well the song does actually talk about this little town in the south of France.
The town is contained within a city wall, which reminded me of my visit to Xi'an, China. Quite small in size, Ev and I wandered from one end of town to the other in a matter of minutes, except for the incessant stopping to take photographs and browsing through stree merchants, etc. Since it was Sunday, many stores wree closed, but the market was open. In the market I had the most sumptuous paella ever, and the merchant was very kind and helpful, especially as I stumbled over my long forgotten french vocabulary in trying to order food. Regretfully, we failed to take a photo with him, as whenever Ev thinks of Avignon, she now pictures him in her mind! To no surprize, I still think about the yummy paella!
Le pont d'Avignon refers to the bridge built to go over the Rhone river. It was the first river to be built across that river, but half of it was washed away during a flood. Thus you can only go out half-way now. We didn't have time to go out onto the pont, as we spent time in the stores, as well as in the open square near le palais des papes. This castle was where the popes lived during the war. We didn't go in, but it was fun taking pics of the people and surroundings in that area. Plus it was Palm Sunday, and we got there just as service ended, and tons of people came out of the church with palm branches.
We wanted to go to the Pont du Gard as well, which is the oldest Roman aqueduct, but the tour times didn't work out, so we won't get to go there. We trained back to Marseille, and walked around the Vieux Port. We were supposed to take a boat tour to Chateau d'If, which is where the Man in the Iron Mask was incarcerated, but the tour was all full by the time we tried to buy tickets. So instead we walked around the Vieux Port to the two old forts on either side of the port. Gorgeous view. Watched the sun set again, and tooks lots of pics of course!
Had an early night. Went home to actually plan out the itinerary for the rest of the trip! Looks like we'll be in Switzerland for a few days, though Turin likely won't happen. In general, the conclusion is that there is very little to do in European cities on Sundays!
~ JCL 21:52 - Genova, Italy
Day 2 - April 8 continued
I'm convinced Ev and I are narcoleptic. Place us in any moving vehicle, we will be asleep in 5 mins or less.
Anyhow, rest of the day was spenting wandering the city, and taking lots of pics. Dinner was at a sidewalk restaurant overlooking the Vieux Port while watching the sunset. Took us forever to figure out what we wanted to eat, but settled on a garlic seafood dish. Was quite good, but there was this unrecognizable vegetable-like piece that was likely something from the sea. Neither of us ate much of that particular thing haha!
~ JCL 22:38 - Genova, Italy
Day 2 - April 8
Got up early to get to Heathrow to take the airport shuttle to Gatwick to fly to Marseille, France. After 10 hours of sleep, plus 1 hour nap on the plane, I think my jet lag is getting better =)
Marseille was 17C when we landed, and it got warmer as the day wore on. The airport shuttle dropped us off at the train station, and from there we treked about 20 mins to our hostel, with our backpacks (or rucksacks, as called by the English) strapped to us. We even had kids in a car driving by yell our "Canada, yay Canada", in response to the Canadian flags on our bags. It was nice to hear *our* accent again!
We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the Old Port. Took lots of pics (need to figure out how to upload from internet cafe), and Ev is getting used to me sticking the camera in her face! Took some good shots of her, and some of the city as well.
We're getting kicked out of here soon, so I'll have to finish this later!
~ JCL 21:58 - Marseille, France
Day 1 - April 7
Flight wasn't bad, but I forgot how big of a time different 5 hours is! Landed at Heathrow, my goo jeh and goo jerng picked us up. Ate at home, and then headed right out on the tube! Me being the narcoleptic person that I am, fell dead asleep on the tube. Thank goodness Ev was awake and checking for the station. You know you're exhausted when you wake up from "dozing" and your chin is practically touching your chest, and your hair is ALL over your face. I woke up twice like that before we were finally at Tower Hill.
London was freezing. Well, I think it's just made worse when it's pseudo raining the entire time, and it wasn't exactly without wind. We wandered to the Tower of London, that likely in those days seemed really tall like a tower. It was also a castle that had prisoners, etc. We didn't go in, just walked around it.
Then we went to a Starbucks =) I was freezing, and dead tired. Ev was much more energetic than me, so she went for a walk, and we agreed to meet up later on. I fell asleep at Starbucks. Haha, no joke, I was in one of their comfy couch chairs (Starbucks in London looks exactly like the ones at home), and promptly drifted off to sleep. Which was good, since I didn't want to be dozing during my office visit!
Woke up from my nap, walked over Tower Bridge, took pics, wandered some more, took more pics, eventually found the EY office. It's SO nice! Will post pics when I get a chance, though I didn't take too many, just some from the outside. But the inside is amazing, crazy that the entire building is EY. They have open-concept everything, and everyone's on hotelling. The view is spectacular, since it's on the south side of the river.
Met EY people, didn't get to see Andy, and fought hard to stay awake! Didn't end up going to their drink up, was WAY too tired. Met up with Ev after the office visit (she was also awed by the office!), went home for a yummy Chinese meal, and we were dead to the world by 930pm UK time.
One thing I noticed about UK -- it's LOT like HK! The roundabouts have the same looking directions, most of the signage is the same, there's the same arrow at intersections to point to which side the cars are supposed to drive into, there's double decker buses, and the drivers get *really* close to the other vehicles! Plus they have an Osyter card that works like an Octopus card, though this system has a lot more lines than HK.
We didn't do much in London, much too tired, but we have a couple days there on the way back.
~ JCL 21:21 - Marseille, France
