My eternal quest for a hobby: May 2007

Thursday, May 17, 2007

Day 6 - Still Venice

Still felt wrecked when we woke up at 9 this morning had breakfast outside
in the garden with a woman from Boston whose son is studying in Florence
(via McGill) for the summer ancient Roman history he's smart, we should
all do something like that at Uni as first degrees don't seem to matter much
anymore anyways! Had nutella on my melba toast this morning, so breakfast
was that much better. Took the boat to Murano, museum closed Wednesday so
wandered into a few stores and factories to watch a bit of glass blowing
didn't buy anything (sorry Anna, you know me). Went to the church that is
supposed to be interesting has some dragon bones, but it was closed (10
minutes too late). Didn't feel too bad as lots of churches in Italy. Next we
went to the Ghetto (the term getto was coined in Venice in the 1500's) when
the Jews were made to live in a specific area the Foundry area or Ghetto
in Italian they were free to roam about during the day but had to be
locked in at night and they had to wear distinctive yellow symbols of some
sort on their clothing. We took a tour of 3 old synagogues very
interesting. Found out that jews could only be one of three professions
money lenders (because Christians forbidden to do it as per the bible),
clothes salesmen and something else which I can't remember(doctors). The only reason
they were locked away in Venice was for political not religious reasons
other countries would not do business with Venice if the Jews were free and
wandering about. I'll stop going on now, you're probably bored. We hiked
back home stopping to get our daily gelato and Cyp and Ellis are sleeping
again. It's about 5 pm we¹ll head out again when they're up - our last
night in Venice. Cyp tells me not to worry we'll be back in November for
his birthday ha! I like Venice, but I think I liked Rhodes as well. For
that matter, a lot of places that were conquered by the Venetians look like
Venice (except for the canals) and they are a heck of a lot cheaper. It is
interesting to see where it all comes from though.

We headed out around 6 to do el cheapo dinner a la Rick Steeves. This
involves standing up to eat. It also involved a pub crawl which sounded good
to Cyp. So we decided to start with the Ostercias on the east side of the
Rialto Bridge. We hiked through our usual route to get to the bridge
(through wireless square C. Frari) where Cyp paused for a moment to see if
he could do internet on his phone nope. We hiked by the Chinese restaurant
(I noted it for later as apparently there was a bar nearby here on the west
side of the Rialto Bridge. Tonight we got a more Rialto experience by
walking through the market that leads to the bridge. It seems everybody and
their dog (literally) comes out at night. We came across the ritzy shopping
area that we had not noticed before. We came to San Bartholomeo square and
proceeded to get lost. Looked at our book again and wandered up and down and
back and forth through all the narrow streets finally found Rostericia S.
Bartolomeo. It lacked charm to say the least bright fluorescent lighting
and glass cases containing the food. I picked what our book said deep
fried cheese and prociuotto and and a half litre of wine (about $5). The
staff was surly but friendly also as the book said. We polished off our
greasy food - I got a salmon sandwich for Ellis and then we headed out to
the next place. This was a place where you could take your water bottle and
fill it up with wine for later that part was closed though and we went to
the bar. This was a much cozier place than the last one. This time we had
prosecco and Cyp ordered the squid in its own ink (I read your advice too
late Barb) and I ordered a grilled corn type pancake which was quite tasty.
The prosecco was about $2.50 a glass and very good. Both these places seemed
to cater to locals while we were there, 2 girls about 9 or 10 came in to
kibutz with the bartender one picked up the drink nozzle and threatened to
get everyone this was laughed at by the approx 80 year old guy in the
corner. After the girls left, Ellis became the attention we made sure he
said goodbye to the old man when we left. A very different world from
Vancouver where we would not be allowed into the pub with Ellis. We then
went to another bar for more snacks and then we then hit the paticerie (ok,
not another bar but I needed a sweet snack). We meandered through the
streets, where we were pressured to buy Frauda and Fucci to St. Mark's where
the sun was just going down finally we make it at night. We walked around
the square to the sounds of cheesy music and met Liam (as mentioned earlier
7 months old from Dunbar and 20th). We walked by a man selling robotic
kitty cats and puppies and stopped to watch Cyp stood a ways away to take
pictures and noted others commenting about how the guy was already counting
his money from me and Ellis little did they know that I am el cheapo. We
wandered through the darkening streets for a while came across a group of
young boys playing soccer which we watched for a while and then made our way
back retracing our steps (stopping to watch a woman and her dancing puppet
mouse). Of course we hit one final bar on the West side of the Rialto but
as always, that last drink could not live up to the one before and we could
not recapture the elation of being just slightly tipsy. So we briskly walked
home with Ellis who was keeping the pirates away and crashed. At least Ellis
and I did Cyp headed out with his computer to the wireless bar where he
was ridiculed for it.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Day 5 - Venice

As noted we had breakfast not sure why I was in such a rush, it was
cornflakes and yoghurt and melba toast. At least it was free. We put on our
sunscreen (it's hot and sunny) and hiked to the phone store so Cyp could get
a sim card. We also did 20 minutes of internet expensive at 9 euros per
hour. Then we started wandering aimlessly and found a bunch of churches and
a square with wireless hooray! We noted said square (Campo Frari) and then
wandered to the Rialto bridge, hiked over it (not quite sure what the big
deal is) and then caught the boat to St. Mark's again lucked out and got a
seat at the back in the open. Went inside the Basillica built in 1063 (or
something like that). Pretty darn amazing gold mosaic everywhere, dark
though. We were supposed to be silent (silencio) and Ellis started to
protest so I nursed him, not sure if that was acceptable, but nobody
commented. Went out, looked at the square some more, the bridge of sighs and
then took the boat to close to home and then had lunch (Wine is cheaper than
pop) and siesta. Ellis finally had a quiet moment and proceeded to rid
himself of three days worth of crackers Nairn oat crackers from London no
less. We had a slight accident where we maimed Ellis again this time he
fell over on the tile in the bathroom the tile was bumpy (circles about
the size of a loon) and one got him on the forehead it was terrible he's
now sporting a slight bruise (I don't think it will show in pictures which
we hope to soon post on Flickr Venice is too expensive for internet). We
also spent the afternoon figuring out where we're going to go next we
decided to stay one more night in Venice because we did not relish the
thought of another travel day so soon so we're leaving Thursday for Verona
it wasn't so easy getting a room as Rick Steeves makes out, but we did
finally get one not much cheaper than Venice! We're onto Cinque Terre on
Friday wish us luck as we don't have a room, but old Rick says it should
be easy although maybe not so much on the weekend we do have a room for
Saturday. We then headed out to the wireless square where Cyp confirmed
some hotel reservations and Ellis and I chased pigeons. We then proceeded to
the same street for dinner (Calle St. Barnabas sorry for the extensive
details they are for Doe and Neil) it's cheaper, I misread the menu
though so it wasn't as cheap as I originally thought but it was delicious
I had an entire Sea Bass don't think it was Chilean, looked more like
the size of a trout, but it was good and Cyp had squid. The hostess at the
restaurant took a liking to Ellis and paraded him around the restaurant
(yes, Cyp let her - Barb). Tomorrow we're going to do el cheapo dinner and
grab a slize of pizza or calzone somewhere. Thought about taking the vap
boat to St. Mark's at night, but I don't think Ellis really likes being out
and about in the dark. He talks very loudly to scare off the pirates. We'll
try to see St. Mark's in the dark tomorrow we've been eating dinner too
late (9 pm) and it's too late to go after.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Day 4 - London to Venice

Woke up at 7 Ellis protested mightily and headed out. Once outside Ellis
was ecstatic and was bouncing up and down in his pack shouting out "good
morning!" to everyone what did we do to deserve him?! Got on the tube
felt even more like the movie Brazil this time all these people in black
suits and pink ties were steadily streaming up the very steep and looong
escalators. It was a completely different crowd from on the weekends.
Everyone looked at tad grumpy. We got to Liverpool Street Station to catch
the fast train to Stanstead airport and we experienced an Air Canada moment
where Cyp waited what seemed like an eternity to find out if we needed a
ticket for Ellis (we didn't). I pointed out to Cyp that I think we were in
a pretty famous station (hadn't really noticed before that), One hour train
ride later we got to Stanstead where more hordes of British were heading out
on their hollies. We learned that you don't get a predesignated seat on
Ryanair and that the lines to get on the plane can sometimes get nasty. Of
course, being Canadian we got ourselves to the front of the line right away
and tried to establish line etiquette seemed to work, no fighting much to
Cyp's chagrin (he's good at squirming his way through the masses). Sat on
the runway for an hour, but after the flight from Vancouver, this one still
seemed short and Ellis slept again (hooray). An hour busride from Treviso
got us to Venice and our very nice apartment room with our own little garden
(and playpen for Ellis which he is currently in protesting slightly) for
145 Euros, which seems like it might be quite reasonable for Venice. It's
not in an old funky building on a canal, but it's very close to the train
and bus station so easy to haul our stuff too so we're pretty happy. We're
staying two more nights as Venice is quite cool.
We unloaded and went out wandered and found ourselves at a gelato place,
so got some then found ourselves at the grand canal so hopped on a Vaparetto
went to Saint Mark's Square and was astounded TV does not do it justice,
wandered around a bit feeling a tad overwhelmed and then took the boat back
to our place Ellis slept the entire time in his pack. Poor putud. Then we
headed out to dinner at the university district, which we were told was
cheaper went to La Profetta, had two beer, pizza, salad and spaghetti for
30 euros which we're told is reasonable. Headed back to our room and
crashed. Ellis woke up at 5 am and wouldn't go back to sleep I would be
tempted to say jet lag except that's his favourite hour every day we
finally fell asleep around 6 and slept till 9:15 where I woke up in a panic
as breakfast only went till 10! This time I hauled a protesting Cyp and
Ellis out of bed as I ran around saying "Go go go!!! I want breakfast!"

Monday, May 14, 2007

Day 3 - London

We dragged ourselves out of bed at nine so we could meet Richard at 10. Had
the best hotel coffee ever (it was instant I'm not kidding). Went
downstairs to pouring rain Vancouver style where we figured out how to use a
phonebox to call Richard he found us at about 10:15 and we took the train
this time to Euston station and walked from there to the British Museum. The
train station was just down the street from the tube and although it seemed
like we were going in the complete opposite direction, we basically ended up
in the same place I never did really get a good sense of direction going
in London. Richard seems to get bored of museums just about the same time I
do (or maybe he was just being polite), but we saw some stuff there that we
hadn't gotten to see in Athens because Lord Elgin stole it (or preserved it,
is the other side of the argument) It was pretty cool to see the statues
from the Acropolis six years after we saw the Acropolis it kinda links our
trips. We also saw some Egyptian exhibits creepy to realize that you¹re
essentially looking at dead people that again, the Brits stole out of
cemetery so they could exhibit it. After Greece and Egypt we headed out and
caught a double decker to St. Paul's Cathedral it being Sunday, we
couldn't specifically sightsee inside but we did get to sit on the Eucharist
and hear some excellent churchy music. Ellis was more interested in the
grate on the floor. The acoustics in the cathedral were pretty spectacular.
We then headed out again and walked over the Millenium Bridge which at first
I assumed was the same bridge that was near the London Eye and I couldn't
figure out how I had missed the Tate Modern or St. Paul's Cathedral the day
before turns out we walked over a different bridge the day before. By this
time, it was pouring and we were getting soaked so we went into a pub the
Anchor and had lunch all 4 of us had Carvery (meat and veg that tasted
like meat in fact Ellis's sweatshirt still smells like greasy lamb a day
later). I just didn't do the conversion (again as per Keith) and lunch was a
reasonable 35 for all four of us, which included beer. Fortunately we got to
dry off at lunch and when we left it wasn't raining anymore we took the
tube to Oxford Street so we could hit Marks and Sparks before it closed so
we could get Cyp his roo fortunately it was buy one get one half price. We
then hopped another bus to the National Museum where Richard got to see
Turner, I got to see Van Eyck and Cyp got to see Da Vinci we then stopped
for tea and then headed off to Buckingham Palace with a slight diversion via
Big Ben again we got on the wrong bus essentially. Watched the guards
tooing and froing a bit and then hiked through green park to the Ritz where
we caught another bus that drove through Berkely Square (seemed swank) and
somehow we ended up back on Oxford Street which I thought was the opposite
direction. We then went over to the business district where Cyp got a closer
look at the Lloyd's building (sewer and air ducts appear on the outside of
the building) and we went underground to catch the Docklands train which we
rode out to Canary Wharf (designed by a Canadian land of big officey
buildings) and Greenwich. This train was nice as it ran above ground for a
long way and we got to see lots of sights. Headed back via the tower of
London (which was now closed, but I really felt we had to see it) and then
convinced Richard to come for dinner with us. We went back to Regent Street
(Soho I think) via another double decker this time we had the very front
seat at the top which was kinda exciting I'll say pedestrians are crazy in
London there are no jaywalking laws perhaps they need them. Ellis liked
it a lot - it kept him pretty entertained even though it was a fairly long
ride. We had dinner at what was supposed to be good value as per Frommers
and I guess it was - but it was very upscale inside (oldest Indian
restaurant in London Veeraswamy). Ellis was so well behaved even without a
high chair - we stuck him on the floor for a while and he sat there seeing
how the different textures on the table and chairs made different sounds
with his spoon. Dinner was delicious (maybe that's where the value part came
in it was only 50 pounds for the two of us though and we did have a fancy
cocktail to start), We ended up racing to the tube so Richard could catch
his train to Winchester (they were only running every hour at this point)
and I hope he made it. He was an excellent tour guide - we finally got back
to our hotel about 11 pm the poor putud was crashed (the concierge noted
we had had quite the long day). We packed up for the next day and then
crashed into bed.

Sunday, May 13, 2007

London - Day 2

Ok, a more detailed version of our trip. We got to the airport with mom and
dad and despite the fact that Cyp had spoken to someone for an hour twice
regarding Ellis, they still didn't know what to do with us when we got
there. Apparently, infants must have a paper ticket, which means parents do
too. Cyp had already checked me and him in over the web so they had to
cancel our tickets to exchange them for paper ones. You should have seen
Cyp's face - we might lose our business class seats cause when the attendant
cancelled our e tickets, there was a small window when someone could steal
our seats. After about an hour she figured it out, but we were a tad grumpy.
Thank goodness mom and dad were there to entertain the putud. We then
checked our bags at the executive ticket counter. Ok, they must not like the
executives - about another 1/2 hour there and there was only one couple in
front of us. We finally made it to the check in gate where everyone's face
fell when they saw Ellis (oh gahd, I hope he's not sitting near us). We had
10 extra minutes so we had to go take advantage of the exec lounge (last
free beer) and fortunately I grabbed some melba toast crackers for Ellis.
Back on the plane in the front row we had two people sitting across the
aisle from us that jumped at the chance of giving up their seats to a couple
that hadn't been able to get first class together (gee I wonder why
perhaps it was the shrieking and writhing Ellis). Ellis seemed to calm down
when I gave him a melba toast and I started to freak out when I realized
that I had only 1/2 a cracker left, but then I gave Ellis to Cyp and he calmed
down maybe he could sense my plane anxiety. After takeoff the wining and
dining began I was served a ceasar 4/5 vodka, 1/5 clamato perhaps they
were hoping the alcohol would get quickly filtered to the Putud. We then had
shrimp salad, salmon brochettes, chocolate mouse rhubarby thing and port and
cheese. This kept Ellis highly entertained (and us too didn't even notice
the time passing by). About 3 hours in they turned out the lights and I
tried to get to sleep maybe managed a couple of hours but then I was awake
counting down the hours to breakfast which came none to soon around 5 am.
Ellis slept on me and Cyp the entire time. After breakfast it was pretty
much time to land again Ellis was not fine on me, but ok on Cyp. Plane
landing was a tad rough, we landed and we landed again.

When we stepped into the airport I felt we like we'd just entered the movie
Brazil. We got the fast track Customs line (hey - we have an extra pink
fast track card for anyone traveling to London in the near future) and Cyp
got quizzed on when Ellis's birthday is. We got our bags and headed out
and yes, Keith was correct being whitey means we were not searched.

Took the tube to London, Ellis fell asleep in the carrier and we stupidly
took him out of course the tube filled up and I started to panic when we
got close to our station. There were now hordes of people on the tube and I
had to somehow get two bags and an Ellis off tried to put him in his
carrier almost broke his arm but did manage. It was awful and everyone was
looking at us in horror foreign child maimer! Got to hotel and
immediately went out as per advice of Keith stay out as long as possible
to avoid the jet lag. Went to London Eye, thought it was 2 pounds 50, but
was 14 pounds 50 so did not go on, walked across the bridge, found ourselves
somewhere else passed Scotland Yard (which apparently it's not anymore), a
billion CCTV cameras, went through some gate that other people were going
through, found ourselves in a big open air horsey like ring thing, came
across a park which we assumed was Hyde park (wrong), passed number 10
Downing St (though we didn't know it at the time) came to Westminster
Abbey (closed), Parliament and Big Ben then down the street to Trafalgar
Square. Then we decided to try to get to Wagamama for dinner we started
walking and I kept getting distracted by little street post signs that said
Buckingham Palace 3/4 mile, Picadilly Circus etc we got to Picadilly
Circus and I could swear I saw St. Paul's Cathedral in the distance, so we
struck off for there and then I decided no, couldn't walk another step we
need food. So we went down to the underground with about 10 billion other
people and walked and walked and walked and finally got to the tube and then
we got off and walked and finally got above ground I was convinced we
walked about the same distance as if we'd walked above ground. Asked the guy
in the Virgin Megastore where Streatham St was and he had no idea turns
out it the next street over (about half a block) One Wagamama later we
took the tube back and crashed. I started to nurse Ellis on the bed and woke
up about 1/2 hour later to a crying Ellis who had fallen off the bed onto the
floor traveling is hard on the putud and I felt terrible he seemed fine
though and we all slept great I only woke up once and then it was 9 am and
it was time to get up and go again. Should mention that Cyp realized he had
not packed any socks or underwear.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

London

hi,

if you don't want to be on our travel email list, let me know and i will unsubsribe you. We're currently in an internet centre on oxford circus st? £1 an hour. Got to our hotel around 4 pm van time - and immediately went out to see the London Eye - we didn't go on it, but it looked impressive. we then ran around like chickens and saw Westminster Abbey, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Pic Circus blah blah blah - Somehow we walked around Buckingham Palace or very near. Went to Wagamama - Ellis got to order his own food which he promptly threw on the floor. I'm about to pass out, but thought I'd send a note to say we made it- Ellis was a star on the plane and slept for a lot of it - Business class was excellent and I don't know how we are going to do coming home. Ellis is hilarious - he keeps whipping his head around as if to say - ~hey these aren't the normal walks we've been taking. He took one look at Big Ben and started bouncing up and down in his pack.

The tube ride in from the airport was a bit of an adventure - but not too bad.

ok, I think Cyp wants to check his email

Ren

My eternal quest for a hobby