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There's hundreds of pictures but I think this one was the best. It was taken on the top of the wall surrounding Dubrovnik, Croatia.

Oh my but it was a grueling day getting home yesterday. Plane late, missed connection, no cigarettes for 14 hours, spouse and I nearly killed each other. When we missed the connection, they got us on the first plane out and told us "run, I'm not kidding." Serge looked like a trapped animal as he said, "Do we have time for a cigarette?" Um, no.

I'm sure I was a delight to be around as well.

I woke up at 3:30 ping! That would be 9:30 in Italy. I uploaded half the pictures this morning already and went through my email which means I spent an hour deleting spam.

I'm happy to be home though, that being a tourist thing is hard work. Nine out of 12 days on the boat were port days where we had a limited time to see all that the cities had to offer. I'm certain we walked over a hundred miles. Maybe two. Today all the home things are pressing but I feel oddly detached and "whatever" about it. The things that brought me anxiety before leaving now seem mildly comforting; collecting late rent is a breeze compared to seeing Rome in a day.

Oh that reminds me, I pooped at the Vatican.

Rome

We walked around town all day yesterday and saw many of the sights. Here you see me around sundown in front of the Colliseum.

This whole town is like a museum. Everywhere you turn, relics from the last two thousand years abound. You really get an idea of how young North America is walking around here. Still, I keep wondering how much suffering had to take place to make such a plethora of monumental artifacts. I keep saying, "I wonder how many slaves died making that?" We didn't see the Pope, apparently he's not in Rome, though he is in Italy. We're going to try to go over there today and see some of the treasures, I mean, how could I say I went to Rome and skipped the Sistine Chapel?

Here's that picture I tried and tried to upload from Venice. A bit startling, no?

Getting off the boat now

Our last day of the cruise led us to Florence, Italy. It's too bad this wasn't among the first of our stops because frankly, we're a little museum and churched out. Still, that famous church where Dante, Michaelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli and others are entombed was impressive as was the Duomo and the statue garden where the exact replica of David is on display. We had a fabulous lunch off the beaten path at an outdoor cafe. If there's one thing Italians do right, it's the dining experience. Just avoid the touristy areas as there it's overpriced and rushed. This morning we're debarking (sounds like a canine surgery doesn't it?) and heading into Rome. We're going to try to catch the Pope around noon (I mean why not, it's Sunday and we're staying near the Vatican) and maybe hit the Coliseum before checking into our hotel. Tomorrow is our last day and we plan to trip around the town eating and people watching. Maybe throw a coin in the fountain. We'll be home Tuesday night. I'll post a couple pics from our hotel if I can, otherwise from home. Until then...

Final days on the boat

Our day in Barcelona was fabulous. But way too short. This is definitely a city we would like to return to. Clean, cosmopolitan and beautiful people. Of course there are the pickpockets everywhere. Our guide (we took the Gaudi tour) pointed them out to us and as we were in line for the shuttle back to the ship, other guests were sharing their close encounters with the pickpocketers. Here you (don't) see (because the internet sucks on the ship) the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's famous unfinished work in progress and Bob and Serge all friends again. Tomorrow, the French Riviera. We plan to spend the day at the beach in Cannes. After that we've got a full day in Florence Italy, then two final nights in Rome. I'll try to post again before we get home, at least from Rome because as I said the internet sucks here. (And we're paying 40 cents a minute for it.) I'm getting ready to go home, which tells me this was the perfect amount of time for a vacation. A plus tard....

Sicily

If there's no picture, that means it's still not working. The internet manager said he can't do anything, so there may be no more photos for a while. The best part of Taormina was the canoli we had. Made to order before our eyes. I don't know which I like better, gelato or canoli. They both rock. The cold war between the boys is waning. It amazes me how we humans hang on to our resentments. Usually it's Serge who says, "Get over it." Now it's my turn, I just keep repeating, "Let it go." Tomorrow we're at sea again, and then it's Barcelona. I'll likely skip tomorrow and post again once we're back on the ship after touring all the Gaudi spots in Barcelona. We booked the Gaudi tour since as I recall the lines SUCK at the Sagrada Familia and you get preferred entry on a tour. You only live once right?

At sea in the Adriatic

No pic today. I've tried and tried but the uplink doesn't seem to be working. I was going to post a funny statue picture with an erect penis, the kind of thing that doesn't faze anyone over here, but seems rather shocking to our prudish North American sensibilities. Our second day in Venice was lovely and we toured a museum and had lunch at a sidewalk cafe on Lido isle. We each had a sandwich (the most delicious Caprese - buffala mozzarella and tomatoes - on fresh crusty olive bread) and a soda. The soda was nearly the same price as the sandwich which I still don't understand, are cokes just for the rich over here? Today we're at sea dodging thunderstorms. There was an awesome window rattling one this morning that rousted us from bed. We all kind of took it easy today, going our separate ways (Serge and Bob had a little tiff last night, I blame alcohol, but neither of them seems to be able to let it go. So dumb, it all started with a shush.) and I read my book in the sun out on deck while listening to my ipod. We've been invited to a little past guest reception this evening before dinner, so we're getting dressed up a bit now for that. Tomorrow we'll be in Sicily and we're going to tour some picturesque little town called Taormina. Someone won sixty-two grand on a slot machine last night, why oh why could it not have been me. Every time I stick a twenty into a machine (only one per day) it's gone in about 3 minutes, bitter sigh. Nothing much else to report, we're on vacation blah blah blah. I hope you all are having a fine day. Oh wait, it's Monday isn't it? So, probably not then. (The days have lost all meaning for me here.)

Bonjourno

It's Venice for an overnight stay. I don't think I've seen so many tourists crammed into one place at once. In fact the city remains due to tourists. The inhabitants are dwindling as the infrastructure crumbles. Half the buildings are abandoned, but they keep up the facades for tourists' sake. Only 55,000 people left living here.

I forget what day it is now

But I do know we are in Croatia. What a stunningly beautiful locale with gorgeous residents whose accent charms you from hello. Well except this one girl. She was trying to get us to eat lunch at a restaurant in the old walled city and when Bob declined since we had just eaten, she said, "Are you pregnant?" Bob said, "Excuse me what?" And she very nicely said, "Jore belly, she looks preganant. Why you have such big belly?" I was pretty amused, but I don't think poor Bob was.

Day 7

Here we are at the end of our Pompeii tour in Naples. On the right is our good friend Bob who is keeping us laughing. Pompeii is a place I've wanted to visit ever since I was a child. It's amazing to see how life was 2000 years ago. Interesting tidbit: In that time, soap didn't exist yet so the way they washed their clothing was with urine. People pee. You dropped your clothes off at the laundry and left your donation on the way out. The king was hip to this and placed a tax on pee. As our guide said, the tradition continued as in Italy, you have to pay for everything. She was right, I paid three bucks to use the bathroom in Naples. Today we're at sea, we're just now passing by the bottom of the boot of Italy and tomorrow we'll be in Croatia. It's been a week and we're finally feeling relaxed, yay.

Day 5

The last day in Paris we finally went up the Eiffel tower. Serge is, how shall I say, reticent to be in high places, and you can kind of see his uneasiness in this picture. He did great though and we enjoyed the view and the historical photos. This morning (day 6) we took a cab to the airport and flew to Rome, took two trains and boarded the ship. Haven't taken any pictures yet and tomorrow we're off to Pompeii so I'll be back after tomorrow with another pic. Ciao~

Day 4

Another stunning day here in the city of light. Here we are on the Champs Elysee with the Arc de Triomphe in the background. This was after we visited the Louvre (free since it was the first Sunday of the month) and saw the Mona Lisa and Venus de Milo. We enjoyed another baguette along the Seine as well. Interesting tidbit- the toilets here have two flush handles (buttons actually), one for pee and one for poo. The poo handle really scours the bowl. They also have self cleaning public toilets. I must say the French are more toilet advanced than us.

Day 3

Down in the catacombs, we walked amongst the bones of people dead for hundreds of years. Can you say creepy? This was funny too - we ordered a vodka martini and they brought us a glass with half vodka and half sweet vermouth. Yuck! We drank them anyway since they cost twelve dollars apiece. Oh and yes, we're having a ball.

Day two

Our first "awake day". We spent it at Versailles (here we are in the appropriately named "Queen's garden", followed by a visit to the Notre Dame Cathedrale. Could there be a better lunch than a baguette and cheese with wine? I think not. Wine is ridiculously cheap here, but a coke will set you back six bucks. Dinner was steak tartare on a sidewalk patio.

Day one

We're still up. Haven't slept for 32 hours. I think we look pretty good considering.

Bon Voyage

Well, here it is. The last day before we go. It's also the last blog post for a couple days. (at least) We don't leave until tomorrow afternoon, but I'll be a bag of stress until then. We'll spend five nights in Paris and then fly to Rome on Tuesday to catch the boat for the 12 night cruise. In fact our ship is outfitted with two cameras broadcast to the web. You can see where we are and what we are seeing by accessing the web cam here.

I've got one last lesson to give this morning, then I've got to turn in the paperwork at the head office, then stop at the bank for some US dollars (that's the currency on the ship, so we'll need some for tips and for the casino) and then head over to MIL's house for an early dinner and to drop off the dog.

Pinch me, it's really happening.

Au revoir, adios, arrivaderci, goodbye.

More pretty pictures

There is beauty in all things.

I keep waking up earlier and earlier. I read last month that if you prepare for traveling to Europe, you should try to wake up earlier and earlier until you leave so that you will acclimate to the time change more easily. I wasn't really planning to do it, but my subconscious seems to have understood and run with it.

I lost the carry-on battle. Spouse is going to check the big suitcase and I'm going to bring my carry-on. Spouse wants to be assured that I won't blame him if there are baggage woes, but that was met with derisive laughter on my part. And then, don't worry, everything will work out fine. It was my turn to say that. This led to a discussion of "what if", imagining various disaster scenarios, and then we went to the internet and bought insurance for the vacation. I hope it wasn't clairvoyance when spouse said, "What if your foot gets crushed by a bus?"

In the morning, I did an hour walk through the botanical gardens. Serge had gone back to sleep for a morning nap, so I snuck out to go over there. I was a bit disappointed, as it still seems to be tulip season there, and I came to grips with the fact that I will miss most of the spring blooming of other flowers while we are abroad. The lilacs were amazing though, I could barely breathe as I walked through the perfume choked grove of them.


There were lilacs of every shade between white and this purple. Most were a pale version of the purple above.

This goose (it's a goose right?) walked right up to me as if I were a gumball machine. I wished I'd had something even though the signs say not to feed them.

It always makes my jaw drop to see blue in nature. Well barring the sky of course. I've no idea what they are, but they are blue.

Final tulip shot this year. This array made me think, "candy canes."

Very dull post

We're down to the final three days. Yesterday, we dragged out the suitcases to see if we can get away with taking everything in carry-ons. We can, but Serge doesn't want to feel confined to such a small selection of vestments. So I gave in and said, "okay, no big deal, we'll take the big suitcase." Then spouse told me I was making a big deal out of it. And refused to accept my giving in. I don't know what else I could do except agree with him, and even then he's still irritated with me. Sometimes you just can't win with spouse. I'm putting it down to nerves, he's never been to any of the countries we're visiting.

Carnival (the cruise line) has changed their dress code and now have "elegant nights" aboard the ship instead of "formal nights." All that's required now are dress pants and collared shirt for men. Jacket and tie are no longer requisite. This is so wonderful because a suit coat takes up space and gets wrinkled in transit. We will each bring a tie, however.

My clothing list
7 pair socks (4 white ankle, 3 black)
2 pair shorts (1 khaki, 1 jeans)
2 pair jeans (1 blue, 1 black)
1 dress pants
1 khaki pants
4 short sleeve collared shirts
3 t shirts (white, grey, black)
1 tank top
2 long sleeve collared shirts (pale yellow, burgundy)
1 tie
1 bathing suit
2 pair underwear (me as I don't wear them every day, 7 for spouse)
1 pair dress shoes, 1 pair sandals (wear sneakers on the plane)

Today we're going to keep plugging away at the pre-vacation lists. There's really not that much left to do, so maybe I'll have time to pop over to the botanical gardens. If so, you'll see the photos tomorrow.

A good day

I gave my last crack-o-dawn class yesterday. It was pretty easy as we met at a local restaurant for breakfast. The two hours passed effortlessly as we talked about all sorts of things. I did make a joke the third time Martin said "He don't". I told him, "This isn't Texas you know, we conjugate our verbs up here." I got a laugh out of it anyway.

After "class" I came home and finished up the final paperwork (correcting final exam, filling out evaluations) and then the housecleaner showed up. She seemed annoyed to find me home when she arrived, so I took the hint and headed out. I went and deposited my final pay (until September yikes) and found myself near the cinema. I went in and bought a ticket for the new Indiana Jones flick and really enjoyed it. It being the film, not the ticket purchase transaction. They were true to the formula and instead of seeming trite, staid and redundant, it was like tasting that long lost recipe you loved and then grew tired of but then much later remembered again why you had liked it originally. I love that Marian came back. (Does that count as a spoiler?) Sure they are all old now, but so am I, and I thought, "No one escapes aging."

They had a Tim Horton's inside the movieplex. Hmm, do I want a popcorn and a coke for $9 at the concessions counter or would I prefer a donut and coffee for $2.50? It occurred to me that this must be a sign of age, this preferring coffee to coke.

On the way home it hailed.

Snippets

* I knew that headphones were a no-no while driving a car, but I had no idea I could get a ticket for wearing them while I ride a bike. I didn't get a ticket, I just read about this in the paper. Is this true in your city as well?

* You've probably all seen the spinning girl. I hadn't. I can see her turn counter-clockwise if I blink or look at her peripherally, but at first straight-on glance, she's always going clockwise for me.

* It's the start of hairy albino toe season. You all know how I loathe the flip-flops.

* The view from the classroom where I taught yesterday.

* Underwear is such a rip-off. I can get three t-shirts for ten bucks all over town, but the tighty boxers are always seven bucks and up a pair. I'm fairly certain a t-shirt requires more material than a pair of underwear. Serge bought a pair for seven bucks the other day and I scolded him. "What? That's the price, " he answered in the everybody-knows-that way. He doesn't know it, but he's still wearing the Dollarama underwear I bought him last summer. (I removed the dollarama label or he'd have never put them on.)

* Up here black market cigarettes account for 25% of all tobacco sales. It's easy to understand why. You can pick up a CARTON for SIX dollars at the local (Indian but you're not supposed to say that) reservation. At the local shops, it's $65 a carton. There must be a thousand percent tax on those things.

* In related news, I've chosen Canada Day as my quit date. I will like lick tobacco this time. (Is there such a thing as a Freudian typo?)

* My friend Em is exceptionally good at reading people and accurately interpreting what it is they are NOT saying. I'm totally the opposite. I take what you say at face value and then am shocked if ulterior motives are later revealed. Em usually has the person pegged in under a minute. I miss having her around to filter for me.

* The last thing I thought before I fell asleep last night was, "did I poop today?"

* I've mentioned this before, but I like to gross y'all out. Spouse, upon seeing lint in my bellybutton, will immediately eat it.

Six sleeps to go

I have a confession. Neither of us is much into museums. Well art museums anyway. Or maybe it's just art museums on vacation. It's strange though because we like galleries. Maybe it's because a gallery takes under an hour and you can never see everything in a big museum, plus you can't dream about having enough money to hang a piece in your home like you can in a gallery. Nothing is for sale in a museum. Except of course at the overpriced gift shop. I rattled off the Paris museums to spouse and received a tepid response (to my relief) to each one except the Louvre. I think we are both more into people watching than museum wall gazing. I suppose that makes us low class, but so what. We both like modern art museums but when time is limited, it's more connecting with the rhythm of the city that we're into. And we love walking and looking at the architecture, so I suspect we'll do a lot of that.

Blogger Frank stopped by yesterday to lend me his Paris books. Thanks Frank! I'm going to look through them today while I'm in class. Oh right, I got a call yesterday for a class just for today (a day I was supposed to be off) to help a functionary prepare for her language proficiency exam. Such a cake gig. I sit while the student takes the mock exam for 2 hours. Then we review all the errors and why they are errors. Then repeat. It's an all day gig, and I get to read while the student takes the mock test. I'll be reading up on the cities we're going to.

You know when I was 17, I went with the family on a 7 week European vacation, the family vacation of a lifetime. I remember thinking at the time, "Oh I've got my whole life, I'm sure I"ll be back a bunch of times." So taking everything for granted. So naive. I went back only once for a trip to Amsterdam, and well, that was a different kind of trip. Oh, lots of fun mind you, I just remember more about the trip from when I was 17 than the one 10 years ago if you catch my drift (clears throat). Spouse didn't go on that trip because he wasn't readily able to cross borders at the time. Spouse has iterated time and again that he wishes to relax on vacation. I keep saying, "THREE sea days! Three whole days with nothing to do but schlub around the ship." This doesn't seem to be enough for him, alas.