A Night in Venice

Venice is an incredible city. From the sheer marvel of the city on the water, to the drainage stones that marked where the underground aquaducts collected and funneled rain water. Our hotel receptionist guided us to a lovely all you can eat buffet, where I proceeded to eat all of the mussels I could eat. Venice prices were a little high, an our guidebook told us to just accept that, but the place we went was cheap and included wine.

We saw St. Marks Square and Basillica, the Rialto Bridge, and a half dozen tiny churches. We saw the sun setting off the West bank of the island, and had some incredible tea.

Let me tell you about the tea.

We managed to find the tea shop of a local Venetian who had spent 8 years in Japan. In a little secluded garden I had a Matcha Latte the likes off which I had never thought I'd find outside of Japan. We spoke a little Japanese to the owner, and had the chance to simply enjoy a little bit of time together. We had been missing our tea time from England with our friend Ellie, so this was the perfect place for a send off out of Italy.

This of course continued to reinforce the idea that in Europe we discovered that we really just want to back to Japan.

Friendz in Firenze

Florence (Firenze) is a great town, and we had a great time, spending three nights there. The hostel that we stayed at had a great breakfast and dinner option, which was nice for our budget, but also gathered all the guests out into the common area.

We met 3 guys from northern Virginia, with whom we shared a few bottles of wine. A group of Japanese tourists, who I engaged in awkward conversation in Japanese, a nice photagrapher, Jodi, from LA, and an awesome guy from DC area who's starting up his own film production company.

The first morning we took a guided tour with about 15 other people, and saw a good deal of the lesser known sights of Florence. We also got the best gelato in the city (according to the guide and a Japanese tourist who had tried 20 different places in two days).

After the tour we wandered and found a local Italian place where the menu was handwritten with the day's date written across the top. Fresh, excellent, and filled with locals. We certainly ate our fill of pasta.

The next day was unfortunately fortunate. The last tuesday of September is the day in Florence where they open up all of the museums free to the public. Our hostel keeper told me it was the best way to see Michalangelo's David. Long story short, the David was not on display in the museum where it was, there was some convention going on and it was impossible to get into the section with the David. Our itenerary for museums after the David had us running from one museum to the next finding them closing the doors just as we got there. It was just strokes of bad luck that in the time it took us to get to the museum that closed at 8:30, we would miss the one that closed at 9:00.

We both agree that it's a great city, but we'll have to see it to a fuller extent sometime in the future. We did see a great deal of art, had some great food, and met some great people, so certainly no regrets.

We're ending our day here in Venice now, having taken a brief gondola ride, seen 5 churches and St. Marks square,had all you can eat mussels and pasta, and taken tea at a brilliant little tea shop. Accomdations have been a little more expensive in Venice, but so far we're doing great without breaking the bank.

We've got a week till flying out of Brussels, and while we're still enjoying ourselves, we're a little excited to get home as well.

Nice was nice

Back in France, visiting a city notorious to my parents as the "bad" city. Bad service, rude people, all that. Apparently things have changed, because we've had an excellent time in Nice. Got some excellent local cuisine (think fancy tuna burger), grabbed some authentic French Violet Ice Cream (think the flower), and took a dip into the Mediterrean. The 'beaches' were rocky, but the water was actually quite warm. We had to pick up some swimware, but we got it at a pretty good price, looks pretty good too.



It was a beach of exceptional beauty, and we saw plenty of fish and a lone red jelly fish along the coast. A day made better by a good dinner



Italy tomorrow.

Barcelona and back to France

We spent a relaxing 3 nights exploring the Siesta side of Barcelona as opposed to the Fiesta side. We had a lovely hostel, booked very affordably, a little off the beaten track. Well, a lot off the beaten track, which was beautifully amidst a Spanish National Forest; it's just the metro didn't run super late out to it.

Our first day out, we explored an incredible market on the main drag, and got (I guess) fruit smoothies of incredible flavor and intensity. Our last night we got a taste of night life and some excellent tapas. We had to grab the 11:30 metro back, so the dancing hadn't really started in the streets, but we enjoyed ourselves anyway in a little plaza where a hippy band played Africanish looking instruments. We also found a roving Mariachi Band, or the spanish equivalent, who seemed to be having a lot of fun, in ther forest green outfits.

It was a good chance to rechage and prepare for going back to France, where we'll see if Nice and Monaco make up for our Parisian Dissapointment.

UK Flashback Scotland

After we left Ellie's house we took the trip up to Scotland for a couple nights, and that was a great deal of fun. The hotel was nothing special, but we found a few good restaurants and had an awesome time at Edinburgh Castle and Stirling Castle.

One night we got to dinner a little late, so we ate out of a grocery store, and I got my chance to have Haggis, which is awesome. I'll be honest though, haggis isn't nearly the horror dish people make it out to be. It was like ground beef, but tasted like sausage. The weirdest part of haggis is basically the sheep lung, but everything else is parts of an animal that lots of people eat. But we also had salad and potatos and chicken for Jessi.

Anyway, the castles were great. Edinburg castle is on a great sharp cliff face overlooking the whole town, and has a really cool war memorial on the top. We enountered a pretty funny Scottish tour guide, who talked about the parts of the castle and how they were used when the Scots fought the English, or when Scots fought Scots to practice fighting the English, etc etc etc. We also saw the Scottish Crown Jewels, and the stone of destiny; the stone upon which all Scottish royalty much be crowned, that was stolen by England and put under the English throne, that was given back on the condition that it's brought back for all royal coronations. Cool stuff.

Stirling was great fun as well, as a day trip, it was a decent walk from the metro station, and to me it looked like it was bright pink. When we got closer it's more of a pink-gold color, which I thought was weird, but when we got up to it, they explained that it was the original color the king and queen had it painted. A lot of the castle had actually been furnished to be close to the way the castle would have been.

We did hit a bit of rain in Scotland, the first we really had in the trip, but we certainly weren't soaked. The UK had perfect weather for us, really, despite all the advice to prepare for massive downpours. A hurricane actually hit Scotland the day after we left, so that was a bit of luck.

It was great fun.

Toulose: Better

An overnight train outta Paris and we've found a French town we really like: Toulose. The price has been right, the food has been good, the whole town isn't covered in garbage nor does it smell like cigarette smoke; many good points over Paris.

We've seen a couple nice churches, and the local stone has a lightish red/beige color, giving Toulose the nickname as the town of pink houses. We had awesome crepes last night, and had a huge meal at a vegetarian all you can eat buffet for lunch today. We're starting to see the end of our trip, so we may be speeding up through the countries we hit. Spain is next with Barcelona. Then as much of Italy as we can. Then Switzerland and a little Germany, and the cheapest flights seem to go out of Belgium. We might not make it to Greece, because we're looking at week 4 this coming thursday, and the only reasonable flights back home are centered further west.

Depending on our budget we've got roughly 10-12 days in the trip left, but we're making the most of every dollar spent.

Paris: Le Dissapoint

After leaving Scotland, wifi got a little scarce, but we had a good 20 hours in London, a good Indian Dinner in Portsmouth, and an overnight ferry ride to Le Havre. France so far hasn't been our favorite country. Le Havre was way out of season, a bit pricy, and kinda dull. From there we made our way to Paris. . .

waaaaay disappointing.

Paris was very expensive, there were peddlers and con-men everywhere we went nonstop, and most critical of all I was not blown away by the food. After everything I'd heard, everything I expected, the food in Paris was decent, maybe slightly better than decent. The crepe's were nothing we hadn't had before, 2 out of 3 bagettes were sub par, and the steak tar tar was so so. Le sigh.

Beyond that, from the view at Sacre Coeur it looked a lot more like L.A. and a lot less like some City of Lights. It was dirty, smelled like cigarette smoke, and we left after one night.

We did have fun though, saw the sights, had a nice grocery store lunch beneath the Eiffel Tower, walked the chandes elysse, and went to Notre Dame. We did have some great falaffel, but that was at the very end of the trip.

We also had a great time with a rag tag group of guys drinking on the steps of the Sacre Couere and roaming the town a little.

We took the overnight train to Tolouse, just got in actually, we're hoping this is a lot better.

Archery with Ellie

So this past week we were hosted by the incredible Edwards Family, who treated us to incredible food, took us out to enjoy the English sights, and even took us out to shoot English longbows.

Ellie and her Dad are part of a English Longbow group, and the last night we were at their house, they took Jessi and I out to a field to shoot a few arrows. They've made their own bows, their own arrows, and even a few bowstrings. There are various reinactments and shooting events that try to remain historically accurate.

The Edwards were incredibly knowledgeable, from the different eras the types of arrow heads came from, to tactics longbowmen used, to how a lot of this information survived. There was a ship they pulled out of silt in the sea around England tht had a chest of bows that were perfectly preserved.

As far for our shooting, two major components that we were going for, distance and grouping. Better distance meant more time before the opposing army could come and kill you, and grouping means putting arrows roughly in the same place, so that whole battalions of archers could drop hundreds of arrows onto a small target. In many cases, I remarked it was like golf, in that consistency is key. I had fairly good distance for just picking up a bow, apparently, and Jessi had nice lines and groups of arrows.

Shooting English longbows in England, certainly one of the most authentic and awesome experiances of the trip thusfar.

Electrical Problems Solved

A quick trip to a computer repair revealed a fried ac adaptor, most likely because we we're using a voltage convertor instead of a prong adaptor. According to the guy, voltage convertors don't work reliably for anything larger than a razor. Interestingly most computers can handle either 110 or 220 volts, you just need the right plug.

At not to much money we got a new ac adaptor that works fine with a UK plug, we'll need a EU plug when we head to France. For the most part though, no problem.

Speaking of razors though, my nice electric trimmer died. I didn't even plug it in, it came out of the bag dead.

It did spark to life one morning, and I excitedly shaved a thick linre on my face before it died completetely. Rather than go to Scotland looking like a Bond villain, I tidied it up as best I could with Jessi's razor, and got my own a couple days later. I'll look scraggy in pictures till I get the hang of this thing.

Electronic Troubles

We've managed to make it to Scotland without much trouble. With the rail passes, it's quite easy.

Where we've encountered trouble, is in power cords at the moment. First, the 3Ds power cord, and now the netbook adaptor. The laptop cord sparked and died with the netbook running. The netbook is completely fine, but the cord wont get power out of the wall. Neither of us saw the spark clearly, so it's hard to tell if it's the power cord, the convertor, or both. It has been making quite a clicking noise, and heating up, but I don't know what to make of it. Thankfully we're in a big city, and seen many laptop repair places, so we'll see how it works out.

Just glad the netbook seems unharmed.

Meals of the UK Part 1

While some travel for the sights and others for the history and still others for the culture and people and arts, I travel for food. While England and Ireland don't have the best reputation for food, I can assure you we've had some truly spectacular meals.

Shannon, Full Irish Breakfast: Our first couple of days had us encounter a B&B owner who made the best Full Irish Breakfast, which is made up of many parts. Firstly tea or coffe with cereal and irish soda bread with butter, followed by a meal proper. Bacon in Ireland is cut wide in thick rashers, cooked well but tender. Then there are grilled tomatoes, hash browns, sausage and crisp slices of toast. The grilled tomatoes are so flavorful that they work like a sauce on the bacon or bread. Then of course is the white and black pudding, which is not at all like pudding in the states, but is rather more like sausage made as much with bread as meat. Black pudding has the blood left in, while white pudding has much less blood. They're like sausage but only ever served in cut medallions. Absolutely delicious, and so filling we hardly required lunch afterwards.

Limmerick, Irish Stew: Irish stew is most often beef or lamb. I got my in a little Pub called Dolans, where the broth was so thick that you could slice it with a knife. Quartered onions in large supply with plenty of meat really made it hearty. What made it memorable, however, was the sccops of irish mashed potatoes; irish potaoes have an incredibly light buttery taste.

Allenwood, Fish and Chips: We had a great deal of fish and chips throughout Ireland, for the most part they were baseline good. In our walk along the grand canal we stopped by a town, Allenwood, for food before trying the next town for accomdation (which we didn't find). It was a tiny town but we found a good looking pub, with little else on the menu other than fish and chips. The fish was excellent, flaky within the breading and not at all soggy. The fried breading had so warm a taste I'm sure they had stirred into it a crumbled hard cheddar. The same was true of the chips (french fries), the whole meal had so warm and flavorful a taste with ketchup and malt vinegar that I should try to implement it similarly in my own recipes.

Dublin, Stir Crazy: We were in quite the rush to catch a film at the Irish Film Institute, and Jessi spotted a noodle bar that looked quick. It was the cheapest meal we found in Dublin and really the only one worth mentioning. The fare at the restaurant was completely customizable; a choice of noodle (or rice), one or two meat or vegetables, and then a sauce stir fried with egg and a green onion. I got egg noodles with penut satay and beef, while Jessi got udon with pork teriyaki.

A Week in England

We'll revisit Ireland when we're more competantly able to get photo's on blogger, but in the meantime we've crossed over into England. A ferry and a train and we made our way up to visit our firend Ellie Edwards, who has done us a wonderful favor in putting us up for a week with her family. The Edwards have been incredible hosts, and we are incredibly thankful.

This week has been far less frantic than Ireland, and we've spent a good deal of time swapping stories with our English friends, watching Doctor Who, and being amazed by home-cooked English Meals.

We went on a daytrip for tea in a hilly region, and some incredible views. Ellie tooks us to the pub with her friends. We visited the nearby city, Worcester and took a slightly longer trip to Stratford upon Avon, and last night we went to a Folk Music Night.

Being in a home for a week has made us excited for a place of our own, and eager to return to a stable life. Our budget however, is looking excellent for an extended stay in Europe, so we may take advantage of our position while we have it. A quick tally of expenses so far in Europe for two weeks, puts us well under $2,000, and we've been told the UK is the expensive side of Europe.

As for the next few days, we're planning on spending the weekend in Scotland, then go down to London and across to Normandy. It's been an excellent trip so far, and continues to be so.

Walking the Grand Canal and Dublin Up

We've been in Ireland a week and finally made it to Dublin. The two of us have had an extraordinary time so far.

Traveling along the canal has been slightly more challenging than we're quite capable of. We made just over 30 miles travel in 3 days. Each town is roughly 10 miles apart, and the path, though pretty, alternates between thick grass and rocky trails. Blisters, shoulder pain, and knee aches abounded, made all the worse by the fact that the towns aren't terribly well labeled--ten miles is a good distance longer when you've no clue when the next town will come round the bend
--.

But it's all been very worth it. We jammed and drank wine with a couple of cool guys in Dangen. We met a cat on the trail, or rather heard a cat and Jessi rescued it, as it had gotten tangled in Brambles. We even starred in a promotional video for a B&B, you'll see it online in 2-3 weeks. An excellent time, and whenever we encountered any difficulty, the Irish people were always more than hospitable.

Our Grand Canal Walk came to a close yesterday, a few days early, when we walked into a pub in Robertstown about 6pm. The patrons, older gents, were very gracious in helping us find a place to stay the night, but there wasn't a single place to stay within 2 hours walk. We were drop dead tired too. We were basically given the option of walk to Carlow--2 hors walk off the trail-- or grab a bus to Dublin. We doubled down and went to Dublin, the gents in Robertstown gave us a ride to the bus stop.

It was a good decision. We've enjoyed our first day in Dublin at a cheap but hip[ster] hostel.

Plenty more pictures and stories to come.