Il Mercante di Venezia

To start from the beginning is usually a good idea. So for now we will start at the beginning of my last trip to Italy and then retrace our steps back to Scotland and Ireland over the holidays.

The plan was this: Stella was coming to London on Friday night. We would spend two days in London and hit some of the sights, markets, etc., then take an overnight train up to Edinburgh to arrive for my Monday morning interview at Napier University. Spend the day there and then board a plane in Edinburgh headed for Rome that afternoon. Stay in Rome for a day or two, then take a train up to Florence for a while and eventually end up in Venice, from where we would leave on Friday morning back to London and then Stella would catch a flight from there back to Hong Kong. A little rushed, yes; a little hectic, definitely; this plan really left no room for improvisation or mess-ups. Therefore what happened? A big, ugly mess-up.

Though we tried and tried, we could never find just what Stella was looking for in London, a great open market, such as in Notting Hill. We went at the wrong days at the wrong times. London was not as fun or fabulous as it could have been, but still we forged ahead. Hoping for better luck in Scotland we left later than we should have and therefore missed the very last overnight train by about five minutes. Not able to go by train, we looked at flights. But they were all too expensive and too time consuming to get to the airport, etc. to make them feasible. We abandoned that part of the plan and my interview. I called to inform the university that I wouldn't be attending. There was no chance to reschedule. But there is another job there for which I applied to that sounds better.

After a night of disappointment and moderated yelling, Stella and I finally got some sleep and awoke to adjust our plans for the last few days of her visit. We refunded our train tickets and called the hostels in Italy to reschedule our reservations, switched the time and place for the flight from Edinburgh-Rome to London-Rome for Tuesday morning. Then we spent the rest of Monday going around London a bit more and I got some fashionable digs from Covent Gardens.

Tuesday morning arrives. We find our way to the airport with little problems and get on board for a five hour flight. Getting into Rome at about noon, we spend the afternoon finding our hostel, checking in and getting settled. By then the only thing we could do is walk around Rome as everything else was pretty much closed. We went to the Roma Termini bus station and got on the number 40 bus which took us through the heart of the city. We got off about half way through the ride and walked down the street window shopping until we finally happened upon the river and a great view of the castle on the bank. After filling ourselves and our cameras with the view we wandered on down to the castle, crossed back over the river and made our way to Piazza Navona. There we found some beautiful fountains-and Rome is full of fountains-as well as a a Chinese lady who wrote my name in characters for only 2 Euro. Stella and I then had a proper pizza and Italian wine and enjoyed the beautiful night.

All else we saw of Rome was Il Colloseo, the Collesium, which we spent much of the next day exploring. We met a nice American guy named Joe who is studying in France for his MBA and happened to be traveling around Europe during his school break. Stella and I meandered around Il Colloseo and the Forum with Joe who was a welcome break from our mutual company (not that we don't love each other, but the wounds were still festering from our ill-fated beginning). Finally it was time to depart on an evening train to Venice. We missed the 5pm train (our bad luck with trains continued through from the Scotland fiasco) but we managed to get the 6pm train and finally got into Venice about 11pm that night.

We found our quaint hostel down a few hundred metres from the Santa Lucia train station, hidden in a little courtyard. It was a beautiful setting which finally set our minds in the frame of holiday-makers. We spent Thursday first by walking down to San Macro Piazza, then in a failed attempt to find Stella's parents the perfect set of fountain pens. Winding our way through the vias and calles of Venice was the best part of the trip, though at the time we were both dead tired and simply wanted to finish our quest and go home. Filling up both of my camera memory cards on the views from the piazza, we gave up the search for gifts, boarded the number 1 bus that would take us all the way back up the Grand Canal and bring us back to the train station. We walked back to our hostel and relaxed for a bit before we went back out into the cold to have dinner with Dan, a friend from high school and college.

For my birthday dinner, there was no cake, there were no songs or candles. There was simply a lot of pizza, a bit of strong wine and at the end of the night, the best present of all. Stella and I finally had overcome our mutual people-culture-shock (the shock and awe of two friends who have been growing and changing thousands of miles apart from each other for months and upon finally meeting again realize they are quite different people) and returned to being good friends who could talk all night about any and everything. We talked until midnight when the wine took hold and we both crashed to sleep. The morning we had a bit of trouble getting to the airport as I forgot to have enough cash on hand to pay the hostel bill and in my rush to run to the cashpoint and back I lost my hat. But eventually the bill was paid, we got to the bus station then to the airport and finally on the plane itself.

The last day was spent as all the days before should have been, by relaxing, watching downloaded episodes of Charmed and talking about things. Stella's trouble was still far from over for when she tried to get on standby for the flight home, it was full and there was nothing more to be done for the whole night. Apparently all of Heathrow and for that matter London itself basically shuts down by midnight, unless you want to go clubbing, which was far from our minds. We opted for the faster and easier but more expensive option of taking a taxi back to my place and got some sleep before we tried again for standby in the morning. Finally Stella had to buy another ticket but she made it home, and we parted as we did when she went to Hong Kong in July, as close friends and sisters. So that's all there is from Italy, except of course pictures and the souvenir of my name in Chinese characters.

Leaving on a midnight train...

That's right folks. I'm leaving on a midnight train tonight (well... 22.58, which is near enough to midnight) going to Edinburgh. Why Edinburgh you ask? Didn't I see enough of it during Christmas, which I still haven't told you all about? Well I did enjoy and see a bit of it the first time around and now I'm going for "business". That is I'm going for a job interview! I applied a while back as a Registry Assistant at Napier University and they sent me a letter requesting that I come up and interview with them on Monday. The only snag was that it was right during the time that Stella, my friend and former roommate, was coming to visit me and our planned trip to Italy. Not to be deterred on either getting a job in the UK or missing out on the Mediterranean, Stella and I re-planned it so that we would train it up to Edinburgh, see the castle (which I missed last time due to Boxing Day closure), I'll do the interview and we'll head over to Glasgow, grab a plane (well ride it at least) to Rome and do three + days there. Not too bad a plan I reckon, but now it's time to put it to the test as we are flying out the door this second to get to the train station. So I will keep in touch over the next week on where we are and 'whatsa' happening (said with terribly fake, Joey Tribiani style American-Italian accent). Until then... Ciao!

Stolen from the real artist

Sun-burnished copper

At some point in every adventure there comes a moment when all the uniqueness that was dissipates. The bright shiny newness of everything rusts and turns the color of sun-burnished copper. It is at this point that time stands still, days will pass is minutes; months are gone in a matter of hours. What else can be said about such a time but that it becomes impossible to pull yourself from the black-hole which devours time, space, and potato crisps with reckless abandon? Afraid that at any moment someone will come along and at last switch on the light – the mortal enemy of black-holes – its hold on those unfortunate souls who came to its hiding place on a quest for nourishment is obliterated. That had been the state of things for these past minutes and hours. Now, looking back on the time that truly has pressed forward, the lone traveler, who once sought after a quest, is left to retrace the lost steps that lead into the black-hole’s enticing trap in the first place. Let us know this time the way out can be found.

SaKi-hall Street and the Castle on the Hill

The following are excerpts from my journal entries, written at the time of traveling through Scotland. I apologize for the seeming unoriginality of this, however since I wrote very detailed accounts in my journal already and as it is less time consuming to resummarize events, I do this for your benefit after all. Believe that?... I hope so. ;)

Journal entry:
December 22nd 2004 - God save Cafe Nero
I left my flat this morning at 3:48ish and got to Golders Green where I waited in the rain, massive rain, for about ten minutes for the A6 service to Stanstead airport to come. Finally it came, I boarded and slept for the hour it took to get to Stanstead. Then after figuring out the crazy airport check-in system I got through security and sat in the lounge... Then we boarded in the torrential rain and I slept again for the hour slight here [Glasgow]. Got off the crowded plane, found the train to come to the centre of town and found my hostel. Of course I got there at about 9:30-10ish and check-in was at 2pm so I dumped my luggage off and started to wander the city. Stopped in a mall for a bit (that was nice) and had a coffee and some down time to get my bearings. Read over the Glasgow section in the travel book and determined a sort of plan for the day - to wander up to the shopping sections and hit a few museums along the way. [Can you tell my priorities at the time?] After perusing the mall a while I headed out to Buchanan Street, went through Argyle Arcade - gorgeous, massive amounts of wonderful, shiny jewellery.

Ediburgh... a magnificent place. 

At Cashel Rock Castle, overlooking the beauty of the Irish countryside. 

"Can't be bothered"

Well I've returned victorious (as much as I can be) from my travels around the Emerald Isles. I'd love to stay and chat (meaning write up all of the adventures of to and fro and to again) but I really can't be bothered tonight to do it. I've become my usual lazy self now that I'm back in the comforts of my home in London. So to compensate, I will try to assuage your curiosity with a few photos and hope you'll forgive me.

Luck o' the Irish

By luck and perseverance (mostly of my quasi-twin) I've finally made it to Ireland just yesterday night. Ohhh yeah, it's an interesting story, but too traumatic and long to get into now. So the blog will be put on hold until I reach London and then look forward to mostly stories and little pictures of Ireland. (Ah, buy a travel book if it bothers you that much!)

;)

Merry Christmas!!

I'm in Edinburgh now, got into town yesterday and went out for drinks with my friend John whom I met in Russia. He took me to a lunch place that had gooood fajitas! I was very excited for that fact. Then I wandered around the Christmas market here and bought some more presents. After watching ice skaters for a while, I met back up with John and we did a pub crawl for a while. Today I walked literally the entire east side of town with a Korean girl, Sophie, who is the only other person in my hostel room. It was fun, but walking for five hours straight in the cold and wind.. not so fun. Now I'm warming up in the hostel and I think some Aussies are going to cook Christmas dinner for the orphans here in the hostel. For now though I'm going to work on reading and recoperating.

Bumming around Town

Hello all! Just a quick note, since it appears all internet access is expenive here, to let you know that my second day in Glasgow is going so far as well as my first. Actually all I've been doing recently is shopping. They have a huge long stretch of pedestrian street that is filled to the brim with shops. And now all the Christmas sales are on, so I've finally been stocking up on winter clothes. I did manage to tour the city via bus this morning and plan to hit a few more tourist traps for photo ops before I go the the Christmas Choir concert at the Glasgow Royal Concert hall tonight at seven. Have to run now, I'll write more soon and expect wonderful blogs once I return to London and have my own internet to putz around on. 'Till then!

Welcome to Glasgow

Just a quick note to let you all know I arrived in Glasgow this morning and have got to my hostel. Can't check in quite yet as it is still early, so I'm going to hit the town for a while, find a cafe and read over my travel guide and plan the next few days. More to come once I find a cheaper internet cafe (the one at the hostel is £1 per 15 minutes, a ridiculous rate!).

And a Happy New Year!

Notice the stocking? I crocheted that myself. And our friend 'Dave the Wireman' has transformed into words for the season.

Merry Christmas!

Our little Christmas tree, which I dragged (carried really) all the way back from the greenhouse down the street.

UPDATE!!!

NEW AND IMPROVED!!

No, I'm not trying to sell you a car or the newest version of the Swiffer, but for a good time call... 555 --- I mean read the latest, actually correctly detailed, version of the Wales trip. Enjoy!

Leeds castle and Rochester - Under Construction!

Last, but not least in the recounting of days gone by is the Sunday trip to Leeds castle and Rochester that I went on two weekends ago. There's not much to say in regards to this but that on a lovely Sunday morning I again made my way to ISH and boarded the coach with 90-some other travelers and headed to the south east, first to visit Leeds castle (which is not in Leeds city by the way) and then to the city of Dickens, Rochester. Leeds was beautiful, an amazing example of English countryside. The late eccentric benefactor fixed up the castle and left it to a foundation to take care of. She also left behind an aviary, Victorian hedge maze and a grotto. The slogan of Leeds castle is "The Loveliest Castle in the World", not too much to live up to, eh? Well I will say it is quite a lovely castle, completely restored according to the various periods of architectural style. In one of the wings there was a spiral staircase made entirely of one gigantic tree trunk, carved with an entwining snake ending at the top with the head of the snake and a wizard crowning the exemplary work. That was truly amazing. Also interesting was the size of the castle, it was in fact a bit smaller than one would expect for the loveliest castle in the world. Not that size matters really. This point was picked up by another Bunacer, a girl from Alabama or Georgia or some other quintessential Southern Belle state, who upon entering the grounds and seeing the castle exclaimed in her discernible accent "It's so small!" The gate keepers laughed awkwardly, and said "Sorry" as if they needed to apologize for the let down of British culture and heritage. I walked around the grounds with the extremely chatting Aussie bloke, Scott, who was good company for the most part though I was inclined to run away or stay behind at certain points in order to gain the much needed composure to listen to him ramble on again. Finally we had to go back to the bus so that we could make it to Rochester in time to see the city and lantern parade.

We at last arrive in Rochester and are separated into groups for our tours around the small city. It came to be known later that my tour guide was quite good and told us many an interesting fact and anecdote whereas other tour guides left their groups with little more information than they came with. My group on the other hand learned that though Charles Dickens never actually lived in Rochester he often made the ancient city the setting for many of his novels. Also one of the boasting points of Rochester is that Dickens wished to be buried in the city, however our guide let us in on the fact that good ol' Chuck also asked to be buried in about half a dozen other cities. The matter was easily solved with the Queen said he would be buried in Poet's Corner in
Westminster Abbey. We also learned that Henry the VIII met one of his wives, Anne of Cleaves in the abbey of Rochester, she was lucky in that she was later only divorced rather than killed but was unlucky enough to be known as the ugliest wife he had. Last but not least of the interesting anecdotes was that the castle was only attacked once by the King of England himself (James that is, a most unloved king). But more on that later, if you really care to know the details.

Anyways, fter the quick tour around the city (quick because Rochester is really exceedingly small, at least the old city/interesting part) we were let loose to wander up and down the high street which took all of an hour and then we had to wait a little bit before the lantern parade started. Again I wound up hanging out with the Aussie fellow, he and I had a little cheap lunch at what looked like a soup kitchen but really was a Church trying to get a few pounds by providing hot lunches to the tourists. We were then joined by another girl who I'd seen before on Bunac trips but hadn't really talked with much. We had a good time fighting through the crowd and popping into shops and having some mulled wine. Finally the parade started. We three found ourselves at the end of the parade where there was a stand and microphone. We were treated to carols sung by the choirs of local churches and some comedy routine by the village funny man. All the townsfolk were dressed in typical Dickensian costume as they walked through the main street holding old school lanterns. We then made our way through the crowd and back to the bus where we boarded and headed back for home. Amazingly we didn't hit traffic and made it back to London about 8pm. And so ends another adventure. Stay tuned to hear about Scotland and Ireland!

For the history and literary buffs.. Restoration House - where Charles II stayed the night before he reclaimed the throne of England, and the site Dickens used as the home of the spinster Havisham in Great Expectations.. oh and me.

Leeds castle, reputed to be the most beautiful castle in England 

Happy Thanksgiving!! .... belatedly

Yeah, yeah I know... it's the second week of December and I'm just now getting around to writing about my English Thanksgiving. I get it.. I'm a little behind on the times but I'm making every effort (or almost) to catch up. So let's begin -

The Monday after Mary and I had our little shopping trip we went out to have a goodbye dinner thing for her. We found this cool pub that's on a moored ship on the Thames. They have pretty good food at not disastrous prices plus the cool atmosphere of the rocking ship. Mary then left on Wednesday to return home in time for the holidays. I spent the rest of the week working - no time off here for such crazy pilgrim holidays celebrating the successful migration away from the Motherland.

Anyways, the planned celebration of a few American ex-pats (aka my friends) was to take place on Saturday, beginning by playing American football in Regent's park then moving to where Ryan, Richard, Whitney and Autumn live (each pair share a flat in the same building) to have dinner. My only duty was to bring cranberry sauce, wine and possibly a dessert. So I take my time, enjoying a relaxing Saturday morning. Go to the upscale grocery store (which they seem to have a lot of here) and buy the sauce, a nice apple pastry tort/pie and two bottles of wine, a red and a white. I then make my way to the tube station where I board the train with my goods and proceed to meet up with everyone at the park. By this time I'm actually running a little late, having taken my own sweet time picking out my fare and am rushing. I have to transfer twice to get to where I need to be and along the way have the terrible misfortune of breaking the wine on the platform!! While attempting to readjust my grip on the bags I drop the bag that contained both bottles. They smashed together and starting spouting out of the bag! A kind British gentleman behind me felt inclined to inform of the wine pouring from the pores of the plastic sack, as if I hadn't seen, heard or felt the bottles breaking at my feet. After informing a tube attendant of the spillage I hopped on the first train, luckily it was not far off, and escaped the shame and anguish of wasting good wine. When I finally arrived at the park I got a text message that they had given up on football (that's how late I was) and was told to meet up at their place. So I get back on the tube and happen to get on the same carriage as they were on. We all make our way to their flats and beginning the painful process of heating up several dishes with only the aid of two Yorkshire terrier sized microwaves that produced less heat than if we tried rubbing two twigs together to create fire.. of course I exaggerate.. it produced about the same amount of heat as two twigs rubbed together. Finally the meal was cooked/warmed/at least brought to room temperature or thereabouts and we dig in (for more particulars on the feast and fun had see my picture gallery on ofoto.com). I had to leave early to go to an all night Lord of the Rings session at the Imax in the city.

So at about 6pm, after only an hour of dining, I head off to watch all three Lord of the Rings films in a row on a gigantic Imax screen. Call me Ishmael, call me a dork, geek.. FREAK, alls I got to say is it was Good Times!! The Fellowship of the Ring started at 8pm, we had a half hour intermission between films and tea, coffee and concessions throughout the night. The amazing times ended at 7am.. yes, that's right 7am.. the next morning. I then hopped on the tube, the very first one of the morning and headed home where I proceeded to sleep through the day. Woke up about 4pm, made some dinner and putzed around until bedtime again and then went to work the next morning. All in all it was a wonderful weekend, not to be forgotten.

Goodbye to one friend

The weekend after Wales trip was spent with my friend Mary who was leaving the next week to head back to Nebraska for the holidays. Hopefully she'll return after the new year to finish her adventures in England. Friday night we went out to dinner at a pub in Leciester Square (pronounced "lester"). Well, really we went out for dessert but we also had dinner as well. Note: If ever you get to Leciester Square, The Brewmaster pub has the best homemade apple crumble I've ever tasted. Saturday morning we met up early (a little before noon) and went to the Borough Market - the biggest, most amazing market place I've seen so far. It has everything you could ever possibly wish for in terms of food items. From Mexican hot chocolate and salsa to every kind of cheese and chutney (a jam-sauce like item, very popular here) to freshly killed birds, rabbits, and dears.. oh my! (So fresh they were hanging upside down, still a bit bloodied with their heads, or rather where the head would be in plastic bags. All this right across from a wine kiosk, it was all very surreal indeed!)

After going all over the market, we had some amazing pizza in the courtyard of Southwark Cathedral, where Mary worked. Then we went about doing some last minute shopping for items she needed before she went home. She showed me a Lithuanian shop that I was happy to note had quite a few Russian items that I missed. Then we went to Covent Gardens and saw the giant Christmas tree they were putting up there and had some mulled wine and mince pies (the epitome of traditional English Christmas food.) We managed to get all the items Mary was needing, including a second carry-on bag for all the things she had bought and all this in a massive downpour. Let me tell you how not fun it is to try and walk around and shop in a torrential rainstorm. I have yet to buy an umbrella here (since I couldn't take the one given to me by the International Office at DU as it was too big to fit in the suitcase and too weapon-like to take on the plane.) We then went back to my place and watched Hitchcock's Rear Window and had Indian take away. We then went to bed thoroughly satisfied with the day and rearing to start again on the morrow.

Sunday, Mary joined me during my Russian language sessions (I've been taking private lessons with a cool guy named Igor from Kaliningrad.) After that we walked around St. Paul's Cathedral, got a bit lost, found our way back and then met up with my flatmate and saw The Incredibles. It was the first Pixar film I've seen, I think, and I quite enjoyed it. After that we said goodbye to Mary and Alastair and I headed home. Then it was back to the working week for he and I and the end of another blog for now.

P.S. For those of you whom I didn't get a chance to email, you can check out all the pictures I've taken so far by going to ofoto.com, you may have to join up as a member (entirely free) to view and/or purchase pictures. If that doesn't work let me know and I'll send you the ofoto invite to view my albums. Happy viewing!