FALL BREAK part three:
Yeah Roma! I loved Rome. We got to Rome by train from Florence [much better than the last train trip we took]. It took four hours so we got to Rome by 1pm. Funny thing though; towards the end of our train ride Whit and I got to talking, and then instead of looking to see which terminal we were at [cause at that time we were suposed to be at the right one] we just got off the train. But we were definately at the wrong stop, Whit asked a guy where we were in English, and he looked at us and was like "The Roma Termina is the next one", and we're like "crap!" So we run back to the train, which already had closed its doors, and by some miracle they opened back up [we still don't really know why] and we, along with another misplaced girl, got back on the train cracking up.
After that, we found our hostel pretty easily [Michelangelo's Palace]. When we first arrived there was this boy there that we heard saying "Sap-on-et-a, sap-on-et-a" over and over again laughing. When he finally comes out, he's like, "You know what saponeta is where your from? America?" we're like "uh, no, we have no idea what saponeta is". He was like "you want to see? I'll show you." He proceeds to tell us about how he has made a mess for the cleaner woman, but it's better this way because it will be cleaner, and so-on and so-on. Turns out he had sloshed a bunch of soapy water all over the bathroom floor. LOL. It was so funny, we passed the girl that was mopping it up and she gave him the nastiest look ever. And he continued doing the "Sap-on-et-a" chant. Funny.
So after showering in freezing cold water [it was that way for the entire time we were there!...oh that sucked]...we went and walked around for some food. We started towards what we thought would end up going to the Trevi Fountains, but instead we were really going towards the Roman Forum [old ruins] and the Colosseum.
On the way there we saw some sort of changing of the guards for Italy. There was a band and two different groups. It was pretty cool. When we made it to the Colosseum, we took the last English tour and heard all about the history it.
Then we really headed towards the Trevi Fountains. These were so great! Absolutely beautiful.
http://www.abcroma.com/Fontanatrevi2.jpg
While we were sitting there we noticed one of the couples that had been right in front of us when we climbed the Duomo bell tower in Florence; I took a picture for them. Both Whit and I threw coins over our shoulder into the fountain; apparently when you do that it assures that you will come back [shrug] we’ll see. I’m not opposed to that at all!
After sitting at the fountains [and being annoyed by the stupid men that try to sell you all sorts of crap!], we made our way to the Spanish Steps [famous for an Audrey Hepburn movie and because John Keats used to write there].
Friday Whit and I completely exhausted ourselves. We woke early and took the freakin cold showers. Then, after some breakfast and latte we went to the Palatine, because with our Colosseum tickets we could get in free. It was a bunch of ruins, but they were really cool. “The Palantine Hill” was really relaxing to walk through and just take in the view and everything. After that we walked forever to the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel…..WOW! How incredible. We saw Michelangelo’s “Pieta”
http://www.bkae.hu/~rhegedu/Vallasszociologia/Pieta%20(Michelangelo).jpg
and then saw his fresco work in the Sistine Chapel [the wonderful ceiling and the wall of the Last Judgement]. We also saw two frescos by Botticelli on the walls and walked through a great contemporary/modern art exhibit.
Saturday we did not do to much, yet got a lot accomplished…or something. We did three major things: the Pantheon, the catacombs (Priscillas) and the Pietza Navono (or something like that).
We did the Pantheon first, and although I was impressed, I have to admit that there are cooler things out there [shrug]. But we got sandwiches and ate them on the stairs here and met two other girls that are from the US but studying in London and were also on their fall break, so that was cool [it’s always cool to meet up with English speaking people when you’re in a non-English speaking country].
Then we walked and shopped and bought a few things and then decided to head towards the Catacombs. So we walked and walked and walked and walked. It was the longest walk ever! [the catacombs weren’t even on our little touristy map!]. But when we finally got there [like 2 hours later], there was an English guide and then we ate pizza on our way back.
We then went the the Navono place which was really cool. Still had the annoying men selling you crap, but it was really pretty and a bunch of artists had set up in the square area, so that was cool to go around and look at too.
Our search of Italian shoes failed miserably, even though I am almost sure that we went into every possible shoe store, we didn’t come home with any! So, to remedy that, we’re going on a hunt around London this coming weekend [smile].
The last day of our trip, Sunday, was soooo long. We got to the airport for our ryanair.com flight at the correct time, [after again rushing for the train and the bus etc.] and then we got in the terminal area and had to wait. And wait. And wait. Until they finally made an announcement that the plane that was supposed to be leaving at 10:20 was now not going to be in until 12. So we waited and waited. And then finally started loading at 12:15, not actually lifting off the ground until 1pm. Apparently there was fog in London and that’s the reason that our plane was so late.
So that’s the end of fall break. And now this weekend, Whit and I relax and shop and do some other things here in London.
LOVE<><,
*maike rinaye*
***so from what I understand "saponeta" means soapy-mess. Soap in Italian is "sapone" so [shrug], yeah [smile].
Wednesday, October 27, 2004
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Monday, October 25, 2004
FB: Florence
FALL BREAK Part two:
Florenza! So we started this part of the trip kinda stressed again [shrug]. But it ended up really great.
On Sunday we got on our train in Genoa travelling first to Pisa, then we had to transfer to go to Florence. Train rides are great. However, the first one that we got into was a little weird.
We got on hoping we had everything we needed and that it was going to take us to the right place [we had it all and it did]. Inside, the train was separated into little rooms with 3 seats facing 3 seats and then a sliding door to get into the hallway. We pick the first one that had two seats in it and lugged all our stuff in after us. It was first filled with three younger guys and an older French man [we figured that out later]. When the boys left, however, and we took over the window seats and relaxed a little, this man in his 30’s comes in and starts pointing to our seats and talking Italian. Whit and I obviously have no idea what he’s saying, but try to move to satisfy whatever it is he is requesting. In the end though, we end up out of the window seats and this mama’s boy and his mother end up sitting in them. He was so pathetic and ridiculous. Ask me about it sometime and I’ll tell you.
We then arrived in Florence and after getting oriented [ie: walking the wrong way and then walking back the right way], we found our way to our hostel. On the way there though, some girl and her boyfriend tried to get into my bag! I turned around and she was like “Your bag is open!” and I gave her the nastiest look ever!!! Then I turned around and kept walking and called after Whit. When I turned around again to find the duo she was reaching into someone else’s purse, so I glared at her and she once again told me that my bag was open [rolls eyes]. Luckily, all that they could have gotten was my pj’s [lol].
This hostel I didn’t think was that bad [David Inn], but Whit claims that it was the worst that we stayed in all week [I think that freezing cold water in the shower for 4 days (Rome) ties with the no-blankets and sketchy bathroom hostel (Florence) to receive the worst-hostel award]. We did get a lot of excercise here though. I don't think that I have mentioned yet that when we wanted to go to our room from outside the hostel, we had to climb 79 stares to get there. Yeah, we both have buns of steel....and calfs of steel...shoot, we have complete lower bodies of steel!
At this point I would like to add that when travelling Italy, take t-shirts that you can wear 2 or three days in a row [smile]….the duffel bag that we carried [along with the two backpacks] became incredibly heavy!
First lesson: in Italy never say that you want your food for here [they charge you a LOT more $$].
Second lesson: you can most always find touristy things cheaper.
On Monday we went to the Duomo and paid 6 Euro to climb the 414 stairs to the top of the bell tower [wow], where we met a Canadian boy who works in NY, and was travelling Italy by himself after being in Amsterdam with his friends.
We then went to San Marco but didn’t go in. We kept on walking and found a square that had the “Hospital of the Innocence” in it; this was used as an orphanage originally. Now it has a museum in it. It was cool.
After the Hospital museum visit we went to San Croce.We paid something like 6 euro to get in, but it was well worth it. Whit read off of a Spanish brochure because there were no more English ones [of course] and translated for me. We saw the graves of Michelangelo, Galileo and others. There was also the statue of poetry here; she was beautiful. And Whit read something about her being the cousin of the statue of liberty (but much smaller of course). We saw paintings by Donatello and frescos by Giotto. This place also had a leather-making school that was originally created for the orphans to learn a trade. We also saw a great random art exhibit [it was wonderful].
We then left San Croce and shopped for a bit and went over the Ponte Vecchio, this bridge that has a bunch of shops on it. Apparently most of the bridges used to be like this in the city. We listened to music in the square near our hostel and then went to a place called Chiaroscura for coffee [which was wonderful].
Tuesday we went to the Academia and got to see Michelangelo’s David, and a bunch of other stuff. Then we went shopping which is really all we did for the rest of the day. Didn’t end up buying much, but sure did try! I think that we went into every shoe store in Florence twice!
Wednesday we did the Uffizi Gallery. And that’s it…….we woke up, got croissants and juice and then got in line at 10am. And we waited in line until 3:30pm. Yeah. Believe it. We’re crazy…okay, I am crazy, but none the less, we saw some really incredible things. We saw Botticelli’s “Primavera” and “The Birth of Venus”. Then we saw some Caravagio and Titians “Venus of Urbino”. I think it was worth it, but I’m not sure Whit quite agrees with me [she’s been there before]. I did buy a great little black leather purse after dinner.
Florence was pretty great. Every night we sorta calmed down in the hostel by reading books and just talking, and every night we had accordion music playing from outside. It was great.
For some pictures of Florence [not mine but you can see what we saw]:
http://www.dal.ca/~rsyvitsk/Vacation_spots/Firenze.html
Here is the Duomo [the first picture has the bell tower that we climbed] and the very last picture on the right is San Croce.
LOVE<><,
*maike rinaye*
Florenza! So we started this part of the trip kinda stressed again [shrug]. But it ended up really great.
On Sunday we got on our train in Genoa travelling first to Pisa, then we had to transfer to go to Florence. Train rides are great. However, the first one that we got into was a little weird.
We got on hoping we had everything we needed and that it was going to take us to the right place [we had it all and it did]. Inside, the train was separated into little rooms with 3 seats facing 3 seats and then a sliding door to get into the hallway. We pick the first one that had two seats in it and lugged all our stuff in after us. It was first filled with three younger guys and an older French man [we figured that out later]. When the boys left, however, and we took over the window seats and relaxed a little, this man in his 30’s comes in and starts pointing to our seats and talking Italian. Whit and I obviously have no idea what he’s saying, but try to move to satisfy whatever it is he is requesting. In the end though, we end up out of the window seats and this mama’s boy and his mother end up sitting in them. He was so pathetic and ridiculous. Ask me about it sometime and I’ll tell you.
We then arrived in Florence and after getting oriented [ie: walking the wrong way and then walking back the right way], we found our way to our hostel. On the way there though, some girl and her boyfriend tried to get into my bag! I turned around and she was like “Your bag is open!” and I gave her the nastiest look ever!!! Then I turned around and kept walking and called after Whit. When I turned around again to find the duo she was reaching into someone else’s purse, so I glared at her and she once again told me that my bag was open [rolls eyes]. Luckily, all that they could have gotten was my pj’s [lol].
This hostel I didn’t think was that bad [David Inn], but Whit claims that it was the worst that we stayed in all week [I think that freezing cold water in the shower for 4 days (Rome) ties with the no-blankets and sketchy bathroom hostel (Florence) to receive the worst-hostel award]. We did get a lot of excercise here though. I don't think that I have mentioned yet that when we wanted to go to our room from outside the hostel, we had to climb 79 stares to get there. Yeah, we both have buns of steel....and calfs of steel...shoot, we have complete lower bodies of steel!
At this point I would like to add that when travelling Italy, take t-shirts that you can wear 2 or three days in a row [smile]….the duffel bag that we carried [along with the two backpacks] became incredibly heavy!
First lesson: in Italy never say that you want your food for here [they charge you a LOT more $$].
Second lesson: you can most always find touristy things cheaper.
On Monday we went to the Duomo and paid 6 Euro to climb the 414 stairs to the top of the bell tower [wow], where we met a Canadian boy who works in NY, and was travelling Italy by himself after being in Amsterdam with his friends.
We then went to San Marco but didn’t go in. We kept on walking and found a square that had the “Hospital of the Innocence” in it; this was used as an orphanage originally. Now it has a museum in it. It was cool.
After the Hospital museum visit we went to San Croce.We paid something like 6 euro to get in, but it was well worth it. Whit read off of a Spanish brochure because there were no more English ones [of course] and translated for me. We saw the graves of Michelangelo, Galileo and others. There was also the statue of poetry here; she was beautiful. And Whit read something about her being the cousin of the statue of liberty (but much smaller of course). We saw paintings by Donatello and frescos by Giotto. This place also had a leather-making school that was originally created for the orphans to learn a trade. We also saw a great random art exhibit [it was wonderful].
We then left San Croce and shopped for a bit and went over the Ponte Vecchio, this bridge that has a bunch of shops on it. Apparently most of the bridges used to be like this in the city. We listened to music in the square near our hostel and then went to a place called Chiaroscura for coffee [which was wonderful].
Tuesday we went to the Academia and got to see Michelangelo’s David, and a bunch of other stuff. Then we went shopping which is really all we did for the rest of the day. Didn’t end up buying much, but sure did try! I think that we went into every shoe store in Florence twice!
Wednesday we did the Uffizi Gallery. And that’s it…….we woke up, got croissants and juice and then got in line at 10am. And we waited in line until 3:30pm. Yeah. Believe it. We’re crazy…okay, I am crazy, but none the less, we saw some really incredible things. We saw Botticelli’s “Primavera” and “The Birth of Venus”. Then we saw some Caravagio and Titians “Venus of Urbino”. I think it was worth it, but I’m not sure Whit quite agrees with me [she’s been there before]. I did buy a great little black leather purse after dinner.
Florence was pretty great. Every night we sorta calmed down in the hostel by reading books and just talking, and every night we had accordion music playing from outside. It was great.
For some pictures of Florence [not mine but you can see what we saw]:
http://www.dal.ca/~rsyvitsk/Vacation_spots/Firenze.html
Here is the Duomo [the first picture has the bell tower that we climbed] and the very last picture on the right is San Croce.
LOVE<><,
*maike rinaye*
FB: Genoa
FALL BREAK part one:
As most of you all know Whitney and I spent all last week (10 days in all) travelling Italy. We started our trip in Genoa then went to Florence and from there travelled to Rome. So in this post I will tell about the beginning of our adventures in Genoa.
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/offcam/image/genoa/genoa.jpg
Genoa is a wonderful city. However, our beginnings there were pretty awful. We began our Friday morning around 3 o’clock. I suppose that it really began the night before where we stayed up packing and talking with Kamani and her friend that had just arrived in town until 12:30.
Anyway, Whit woke up at 3am to take a shower. I was disinclined to do the same so I rolled over to sleep for a little longer only to be woken to a “Maike! We have ten minutes!” loudly whispered in my direction. All I could think of was “crap, if we have to run to the freaking plane again I am going to cry!”
We got out the door and down to the bus stop in just enough time to get on our bus at 4:15am [the tube station isn’t opened that early otherwise we would have done that, it’s much faster]. When we get on the bus though, this guy behind us starts talking all sorts of nonsense and totally freaks me out. He’s talking about how his wife died in 1996; at this point I’m like, “okay, fine, so he’s just recollecting bad times and he’s a little mentally messed up, whatever”. But then he starts talking about how he killed her! Including horrible details that left me and my imagination to wander; Freak me out!!! All I could do was sit and pray and think “Dear Jesus, please do not let him follow us and get on the next bus we have to catch”. Luckily God heard my prayers and he got off the next bus stop still talking. But what a way to start our vacation!
After that we got on our train and made it to the airport and everything successfully [after we had to get on another bus to the actual airport because of a gas leak or something]. The flight was wonderful, Whit and I both fell asleep before we took off and only woke up when a baby started crying. Landing in Genoa was wonderful! You could see land on one side of you and the crashing water against the black rocks on the other side, it was beautiful. After landing though, we had some difficulty getting to the “bed and breakfast”.
By a bit of difficulty, I mean that we got off the plane at 10:30am and it was only supposed to take us and hour and a half to get to the place, but with the Italian bus system and not knowing quite how to figure it out it ended up taking us until 4pm to find it.
We actually slept in a woman’s house [yup, surprised us too!]. It turned out to be the best place we stayed during our entire trip, but it wasn’t exactly what we expected. It was located about 45min [in the bus] from the city centre, but within a short walk you could see crashing waves on black rocks…beautiful.
In Genoa, we shopped, visited San Leonardo [a basilica style church with frescos and sculptures], ate great sandwiches, took a 45-min boat tour, and found out that Genoa was the birthplace of Christopher Columbus and was also home of the famous Italian Yacht Club founded in 1879. We ate gelato, mailed some postcards, took a train-like-tram thing to the top of a hill [great view], and ate at McDonalds [smile:]; which is the place to go if you are in your 20’s [there are no old people there at all!].
And that was Genoa. We hopped on a train on Sunday morning to Florence.
<><,
*maike rinaye*
As most of you all know Whitney and I spent all last week (10 days in all) travelling Italy. We started our trip in Genoa then went to Florence and from there travelled to Rome. So in this post I will tell about the beginning of our adventures in Genoa.
http://www.clemson.edu/caah/offcam/image/genoa/genoa.jpg
Genoa is a wonderful city. However, our beginnings there were pretty awful. We began our Friday morning around 3 o’clock. I suppose that it really began the night before where we stayed up packing and talking with Kamani and her friend that had just arrived in town until 12:30.
Anyway, Whit woke up at 3am to take a shower. I was disinclined to do the same so I rolled over to sleep for a little longer only to be woken to a “Maike! We have ten minutes!” loudly whispered in my direction. All I could think of was “crap, if we have to run to the freaking plane again I am going to cry!”
We got out the door and down to the bus stop in just enough time to get on our bus at 4:15am [the tube station isn’t opened that early otherwise we would have done that, it’s much faster]. When we get on the bus though, this guy behind us starts talking all sorts of nonsense and totally freaks me out. He’s talking about how his wife died in 1996; at this point I’m like, “okay, fine, so he’s just recollecting bad times and he’s a little mentally messed up, whatever”. But then he starts talking about how he killed her! Including horrible details that left me and my imagination to wander; Freak me out!!! All I could do was sit and pray and think “Dear Jesus, please do not let him follow us and get on the next bus we have to catch”. Luckily God heard my prayers and he got off the next bus stop still talking. But what a way to start our vacation!
After that we got on our train and made it to the airport and everything successfully [after we had to get on another bus to the actual airport because of a gas leak or something]. The flight was wonderful, Whit and I both fell asleep before we took off and only woke up when a baby started crying. Landing in Genoa was wonderful! You could see land on one side of you and the crashing water against the black rocks on the other side, it was beautiful. After landing though, we had some difficulty getting to the “bed and breakfast”.
By a bit of difficulty, I mean that we got off the plane at 10:30am and it was only supposed to take us and hour and a half to get to the place, but with the Italian bus system and not knowing quite how to figure it out it ended up taking us until 4pm to find it.
We actually slept in a woman’s house [yup, surprised us too!]. It turned out to be the best place we stayed during our entire trip, but it wasn’t exactly what we expected. It was located about 45min [in the bus] from the city centre, but within a short walk you could see crashing waves on black rocks…beautiful.
In Genoa, we shopped, visited San Leonardo [a basilica style church with frescos and sculptures], ate great sandwiches, took a 45-min boat tour, and found out that Genoa was the birthplace of Christopher Columbus and was also home of the famous Italian Yacht Club founded in 1879. We ate gelato, mailed some postcards, took a train-like-tram thing to the top of a hill [great view], and ate at McDonalds [smile:]; which is the place to go if you are in your 20’s [there are no old people there at all!].
And that was Genoa. We hopped on a train on Sunday morning to Florence.
<><,
*maike rinaye*
Tuesday, October 12, 2004
houses
These are some more houses that I've visited with my classes:
Kensington Palace:
http://www.gen.niihama-nct.ac.jp/~noguchi/Kensington%20Palace.JPG
Wilton House:
http://www.compapp.dcu.ie/~humphrys/FamTree/Herbert/Bitmaps/wilton.6.full.jpg
Blenheim Palace:
http://www.london-tourism.com/oxford-the-cotswolds-blenheim-palace.jpg
Hampstead Heath [1st pic where they filmed a shot in Notting Hill]:
http://www.compulink.co.uk/~archaeology/hampstead-heath/kenwood/house.jpg
http://www.dlc.fi/~hurmari/img0077.jpg
Norwich Cathedral:
http://www.austin-healey-club-ec.fsnet.co.uk/healey_photographs/events/dunston_hall_2000/norwich_cathedral.jpg
Kensington Palace:
http://www.gen.niihama-nct.ac.jp/~noguchi/Kensington%20Palace.JPG
Wilton House:
http://www.compapp.dcu.ie/~humphrys/FamTree/Herbert/Bitmaps/wilton.6.full.jpg
Blenheim Palace:
http://www.london-tourism.com/oxford-the-cotswolds-blenheim-palace.jpg
Hampstead Heath [1st pic where they filmed a shot in Notting Hill]:
http://www.compulink.co.uk/~archaeology/hampstead-heath/kenwood/house.jpg
http://www.dlc.fi/~hurmari/img0077.jpg
Norwich Cathedral:
http://www.austin-healey-club-ec.fsnet.co.uk/healey_photographs/events/dunston_hall_2000/norwich_cathedral.jpg
Monday, October 11, 2004
Venezia!
Oh my goodness! Crazy stuff! But really great. I'm random, I know [smile].
So Jill and Beth were here last week [they actually just left this morning :)]. But we had a really great weekend in Venice. We had a really great week too!
On Tuesday Whit and I went to see "Dumb Show" with our theatre classes and Jill and Beth went to see Phantom of the Opera.Wednesday was our looking hott night [smile]. We all got dressed up in nice dress pants and high heels [except for Whit, ‘cause she doesn’t have any high heels…yet], and then we rode the London Eye when it got dark [which was really great]. Afterwards, we went out to dinner, which turned out to be in Leister Square at a Mexican restaurant [even though they didn’t serve us free chips and salsa]. It was absolutely fantastic. After dinner, we came home, got into comfy clothes and fell happily asleep.
Thursday we got up early enough and started packing for Venice to find that Whit’s class was cancelled. We caught up on some errands [like laundry and Venice research], headed off to Oxford Street for a while and then back to grab our bags and head for the bus station.
Okay, at this point I would like to point out, we were very careful to plan correctly. Whit had laid out enough time for us to screw up once and still be at the airport in plenty of time…however, plans changed. We made it to the correct bus stop in time for the bus, and got on the correct bus successfully. But after the 75 min. maximum time had elapsed on the bus ride we started to worry. Whit had found info in our lobby that said the bus right would take between 60 and 75 min. In reality however, it took us 2 hours. 120 min! This put us right at the absolute last min. So when the bus pulled into the airport parking lot, we ran like hell!
I have always wanted to be that person who was running through the airport, afraid of missing their flight, but just barely making it. And now…I never want to be that person again! Ever! We literally ran all the way to the check-in counter, and only made it by 3 min. If we had been three min. later we would have been screwed! And then, to top it off, we had to run to get to the boarding area, which apparently stopped boarding in 5 min. Signs leading the way told us that it would take 12 min. to get to our gate, but let me tell you, I think we made it in only 3 min. And of course we then found out something messed up in Ryan air and we had to switch gates and then wait in line.
In the case that we missed the check in time for our flight, we came up with many back up plans. I would cry, of coarse, Jill would act mentally slow, Beth would cry with me, and Whit would try to reason and perhaps become very angry. Luckily for us, we didn’t have to do any of these to get onto our flight. All we had to do was haul it through the freakin long airportJ.
We finally got into the plane and had a wonderful flight, however, after we landed and took another bus into Venice, we were more or less lost. Beth and Jill hadn’t eaten, we didn’t have a great map, and had no idea where the bus to take us to our campsite was. After getting them some food we found that it would be necessary to get a cab to get to the camp place. Finally we make it there and find our small little cabin, which is cool, but of coarse everything is damp.
Friday we went into Venice finally and did a lot of shopping, ate gelato [which Jill tried to spell “Jill-ato” (when I asked how to spell it for a post card)]. We went out to eat right off the main canal, outside, next to the water. Then we took a gondola ride, which was really sweet!
Saturday we did more shopping, wandered around, ate gelato, watched a man make a glass horse [wow!], and walked to Singapore [the other side of Venice:], Found four cute Italian boys who checked us out as we checked them out [lol], ate some great mozzarella and tomato, caught the bus back, chatted in bed and fell pleasantly asleep.
Sunday we once again had to get a cab, caught our bus, checked in [with no running!] and then waited for an hour and a half [our plane couldn’t land because of the incredibly thick fog covering the city], caught some turbulence when we finally got off the ground, landed and then took another long bus ride [like 2 and a half hours! We were on the bus longer than we were on the plane from Venice!], had to listen to annoying and loud Americans talk about eating gelato 8 times in 3 days (I might be exaggerating a little bit, but it was stupid, and I thought that people who go to Oxford were supposed to be smart!), then we made it back to Regents to clean up and go out for tea. Then we relax and Beth and Jill pack.
It was a wonderful trip. And what more, we just found out that Lori is going to be coming out here for Thanksgiving! Sweet!!! [Rika, my sister, and Alicia, friend, will be in town too!].
LOVE<><,
*maike rinaye*
PS: next week is fall break, we're going to Italy: Genoa, Florence and Rome. If you have any suggestions post 'em!
So Jill and Beth were here last week [they actually just left this morning :)]. But we had a really great weekend in Venice. We had a really great week too!
On Tuesday Whit and I went to see "Dumb Show" with our theatre classes and Jill and Beth went to see Phantom of the Opera.Wednesday was our looking hott night [smile]. We all got dressed up in nice dress pants and high heels [except for Whit, ‘cause she doesn’t have any high heels…yet], and then we rode the London Eye when it got dark [which was really great]. Afterwards, we went out to dinner, which turned out to be in Leister Square at a Mexican restaurant [even though they didn’t serve us free chips and salsa]. It was absolutely fantastic. After dinner, we came home, got into comfy clothes and fell happily asleep.
Thursday we got up early enough and started packing for Venice to find that Whit’s class was cancelled. We caught up on some errands [like laundry and Venice research], headed off to Oxford Street for a while and then back to grab our bags and head for the bus station.
Okay, at this point I would like to point out, we were very careful to plan correctly. Whit had laid out enough time for us to screw up once and still be at the airport in plenty of time…however, plans changed. We made it to the correct bus stop in time for the bus, and got on the correct bus successfully. But after the 75 min. maximum time had elapsed on the bus ride we started to worry. Whit had found info in our lobby that said the bus right would take between 60 and 75 min. In reality however, it took us 2 hours. 120 min! This put us right at the absolute last min. So when the bus pulled into the airport parking lot, we ran like hell!
I have always wanted to be that person who was running through the airport, afraid of missing their flight, but just barely making it. And now…I never want to be that person again! Ever! We literally ran all the way to the check-in counter, and only made it by 3 min. If we had been three min. later we would have been screwed! And then, to top it off, we had to run to get to the boarding area, which apparently stopped boarding in 5 min. Signs leading the way told us that it would take 12 min. to get to our gate, but let me tell you, I think we made it in only 3 min. And of course we then found out something messed up in Ryan air and we had to switch gates and then wait in line.
In the case that we missed the check in time for our flight, we came up with many back up plans. I would cry, of coarse, Jill would act mentally slow, Beth would cry with me, and Whit would try to reason and perhaps become very angry. Luckily for us, we didn’t have to do any of these to get onto our flight. All we had to do was haul it through the freakin long airportJ.
We finally got into the plane and had a wonderful flight, however, after we landed and took another bus into Venice, we were more or less lost. Beth and Jill hadn’t eaten, we didn’t have a great map, and had no idea where the bus to take us to our campsite was. After getting them some food we found that it would be necessary to get a cab to get to the camp place. Finally we make it there and find our small little cabin, which is cool, but of coarse everything is damp.
Friday we went into Venice finally and did a lot of shopping, ate gelato [which Jill tried to spell “Jill-ato” (when I asked how to spell it for a post card)]. We went out to eat right off the main canal, outside, next to the water. Then we took a gondola ride, which was really sweet!
Saturday we did more shopping, wandered around, ate gelato, watched a man make a glass horse [wow!], and walked to Singapore [the other side of Venice:], Found four cute Italian boys who checked us out as we checked them out [lol], ate some great mozzarella and tomato, caught the bus back, chatted in bed and fell pleasantly asleep.
Sunday we once again had to get a cab, caught our bus, checked in [with no running!] and then waited for an hour and a half [our plane couldn’t land because of the incredibly thick fog covering the city], caught some turbulence when we finally got off the ground, landed and then took another long bus ride [like 2 and a half hours! We were on the bus longer than we were on the plane from Venice!], had to listen to annoying and loud Americans talk about eating gelato 8 times in 3 days (I might be exaggerating a little bit, but it was stupid, and I thought that people who go to Oxford were supposed to be smart!), then we made it back to Regents to clean up and go out for tea. Then we relax and Beth and Jill pack.
It was a wonderful trip. And what more, we just found out that Lori is going to be coming out here for Thanksgiving! Sweet!!! [Rika, my sister, and Alicia, friend, will be in town too!].
LOVE<><,
*maike rinaye*
PS: next week is fall break, we're going to Italy: Genoa, Florence and Rome. If you have any suggestions post 'em!
Tuesday, October 05, 2004
Road Trippin!
Hey ya'all, so I would have put this out yesterday [because I was doing more procrastination yesterday than I am doing today], but the freakin blogster thing wouldn't let me get on and type it. So here I am to tell you about my weekend [smile].
I ended my work week on Wed. evening, as usual. This week was a bit harder than the previous ones in the fact that I had to turn in two different papers on specific houses [but really, who am I kidding, the papers were only 1,000 words each, and relatively easy to finish up (smile)].
On Thursday, after Whit got out of class [10:30am], her, Andrew and I took a bus to a book sale off the river, afterwards we stopped for a spot of tea and then Andrew took off to do whatever, and Whit and I went to the Globe theatre for a tour. After our tour [which was really short and cost too much money], we jumped back on the bus to travel back home, grab a bite to eat and then hurry, hurry, hurry to change into our hot outfits [and Whitney had to shave her hairy legs:]. So we hurry and meet Robi downstairs and hopped the tube to see Chicago in the theatre.
We get to the theatre to find out there are no student prices, but the prices weren’t as bad as they could have been, so since we were all dressed up we went anyway. It was really cool, not as “wow” as it should have been, perhaps, but neat, none-the-less.
On Friday, Beth and Jill came in, but because of a fieldtrip I was required to take with my class, I left Whit to meet them at the station. As it turned out, there were five of us from the class walking together to Victoria bus station and actually ran into them walking back to the tube. So I got to see them after all [smile].
The fieldtrip was unbelievable. We were to meet at the bus station before 2:30 so the class could purchase a group ticket together and save some money. But at 2:45 when there was still only five of us, and we’d sent one of our members to look for others, we decided to go on and buy our tickets. But when we got inside we found a long, long queue [line] leading up to the attendants. This mostly nixed our bus idea, seeing that the last bus left at 3 and we still had at least 20 min. to wait in the line. So, we put up the idea of renting a vehicle and just road trippin it. Our professor thinks for a min. and says, are you all up for it? I’m like, of coarse we are! There are two girls there that I didn’t know very well and they were giving each other the “oh my goodness, are we really up for this?” look….but they were like “what the heck!”.
So we travel to rent a mini-van and an hour and a half later, squished into the standard vehicle with the crazy professor driver, we are on our way. That night we made it to the hostel [after 2 freakin hours of traffic just getting out of London!], and found a place to eat, pizza of coarse.
The next day, Saturday, we went to Norwich and visited and talked about the Norwich Cathedral and the Norwich Castle. Then we went to Blicking Hall in Norfolk for a tour around it. It was pretty impressive, but owned by the National Trust, so our professor couldn’t really talk about anything while we were inside.
On Sunday we got up and travelled to Holkham Hall and then to Houghton Hall, where we got two personal tours of the houses because their open season is now closed. Both houses were absolutely amazing. After that we were in the car again to travel back to London [about 4 hours].
Coming back to find Jill, Beth and Whit up in my room was so great! We went out to eat some dinner and then got some great ice cream then homeward to rest and relax before Monday when I started yet another paper [smile].
And tomorrow we’re going to VENICE!!! How cool is that?! Okay, I’m off to find some lunch.
LOVE<><,
*maike rinaye*
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/scripts/nthandbook.dll?ACTION=PROPERTY&PropertyId=49
http://www.holkham.co.uk/
http://www.houghtonhall.com/htmlfiles/1024index.htm
I ended my work week on Wed. evening, as usual. This week was a bit harder than the previous ones in the fact that I had to turn in two different papers on specific houses [but really, who am I kidding, the papers were only 1,000 words each, and relatively easy to finish up (smile)].
On Thursday, after Whit got out of class [10:30am], her, Andrew and I took a bus to a book sale off the river, afterwards we stopped for a spot of tea and then Andrew took off to do whatever, and Whit and I went to the Globe theatre for a tour. After our tour [which was really short and cost too much money], we jumped back on the bus to travel back home, grab a bite to eat and then hurry, hurry, hurry to change into our hot outfits [and Whitney had to shave her hairy legs:]. So we hurry and meet Robi downstairs and hopped the tube to see Chicago in the theatre.
We get to the theatre to find out there are no student prices, but the prices weren’t as bad as they could have been, so since we were all dressed up we went anyway. It was really cool, not as “wow” as it should have been, perhaps, but neat, none-the-less.
On Friday, Beth and Jill came in, but because of a fieldtrip I was required to take with my class, I left Whit to meet them at the station. As it turned out, there were five of us from the class walking together to Victoria bus station and actually ran into them walking back to the tube. So I got to see them after all [smile].
The fieldtrip was unbelievable. We were to meet at the bus station before 2:30 so the class could purchase a group ticket together and save some money. But at 2:45 when there was still only five of us, and we’d sent one of our members to look for others, we decided to go on and buy our tickets. But when we got inside we found a long, long queue [line] leading up to the attendants. This mostly nixed our bus idea, seeing that the last bus left at 3 and we still had at least 20 min. to wait in the line. So, we put up the idea of renting a vehicle and just road trippin it. Our professor thinks for a min. and says, are you all up for it? I’m like, of coarse we are! There are two girls there that I didn’t know very well and they were giving each other the “oh my goodness, are we really up for this?” look….but they were like “what the heck!”.
So we travel to rent a mini-van and an hour and a half later, squished into the standard vehicle with the crazy professor driver, we are on our way. That night we made it to the hostel [after 2 freakin hours of traffic just getting out of London!], and found a place to eat, pizza of coarse.
The next day, Saturday, we went to Norwich and visited and talked about the Norwich Cathedral and the Norwich Castle. Then we went to Blicking Hall in Norfolk for a tour around it. It was pretty impressive, but owned by the National Trust, so our professor couldn’t really talk about anything while we were inside.
On Sunday we got up and travelled to Holkham Hall and then to Houghton Hall, where we got two personal tours of the houses because their open season is now closed. Both houses were absolutely amazing. After that we were in the car again to travel back to London [about 4 hours].
Coming back to find Jill, Beth and Whit up in my room was so great! We went out to eat some dinner and then got some great ice cream then homeward to rest and relax before Monday when I started yet another paper [smile].
And tomorrow we’re going to VENICE!!! How cool is that?! Okay, I’m off to find some lunch.
LOVE<><,
*maike rinaye*
http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/scripts/nthandbook.dll?ACTION=PROPERTY&PropertyId=49
http://www.holkham.co.uk/
http://www.houghtonhall.com/htmlfiles/1024index.htm
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