Category: Travel

After walking through the Colosseum, we headed over to the Roman Forum.  We first went through the Arch of Titus, built by the Jews under the Romans for not worshipping the Emperor.

As we walked down the path, we tried to soak in the fact that these same large basalt stones were also walked on by Caesar Augustus 2,000 years ago.  That’s a lot more history than the puny 200 year history on any street in Seattle…

Then we headed toward the Main Square, which looked like my patchy dead lawn in the summer.

According to Roman legend, some twin brother Romulus (Rome) and Remus couldn’t get dates, so they attacked the nearby tribe and snatched their women.  I have no idea why they’re proud of this story.

Of course, we had to visit the spot where Julius Caesar was burned, after being stabbed by his own Senators…

and the meeting place of the Senates who stabbed him…

I see that the statue is headless.  I’m not sure if that was by design.

After that, we passed by this Victor Emmanuel monument.  I must say that this place seemed much bigger in person.

After that we dropped by a bookstore to use the restroom.  Even though I didn’t speak Italian, there was no mistaking which bathroom is which…

It’s also interesting to observe foreign forms of cute transportation…

as well as the transportation for the police department…

and the aftermath of the transportation device’s foul defilement of the street… oh wait, I didn’t take a picture of that.

Afterwards, we swung by Gelateria della Palma for our first taste of the famous Gelato that everyone says we must try in Europe.

I don’t know what all the raving was about because it tasted just like ice cream.  I suppose it was a little thicker…

After this we arrived at the Pantheon, a roman temple dedicated to all of the gods.  Then in the Middle Ages, it became a Christian church dedicated to all the martyrs.

With this engineering marvel, it had a nice and bright skylight illuminating the interiors.  I love skylights.

It’s the only building continuously used since it was built.  Pretty cool, huh?

After this, we were a little hungry, so we decided to go to Cafeteria Brek, with “a modern, efficient atmosphere and cheap prices”.  Unfortunately when we arrived, we saw a note on the door that said…  hmm…  something we didn’t understand.  But we did understand the universal implication of a locked door.

So we took a detour… a long detour, and arrived at another Rick Steve recommended restaurant:

Ristorante Grotto del Teatro di Pompeo, sitting atop an ancient theater, serves good food at great prices, perfect if you want to dine on a characteristic cobbled street, busy with strolling people and musicians.  It’s well-established, albeit a bit tired, but always populate.  Their pasta radicchio (made with red endive) is good.

So we stepped in, and a rude waitress pointed to a table for us to sit down.  On the table sat a wine glass… with lipstick mark on it.  Hmm, definitely off to a good start. 

We didn’t ask for any bread, but she took the order and brought us some anyway, one of which has already been cut in half.  Either she was really nice and precut it for us or the previous customers did.  She also brought the wrong size of the water.  After about 10 minutes we finally waved her down to explain it to her, and she realized it was meant for the table next door and came and just grabbed it and moved it over.

Finally we got our order of pasta radicchio…

I have no idea why took we the suggestion of an American (Rick Steve) for food because frankly we were… less than impressed.  The other dish we ordered, the seafood pasta, turned out to be much better.

Finally we were ready for the check, which she managed to produce by scribbling on a piece of paper.  How ghetto.  We also noticed 4 euros for the precut bread.  I wished I could have left no tip…  oh wait, I didn’t leave any tip!  But then neither do the Italians so it didn’t really matter.

At least on the way back, we were treated to a nice nightly stroll with a full moon and a night scenery of the Victor Emmanuel monument…

We were able to find our way back to meet our 11pm curfew…  barely  🙂  For more pictures, take a look at the Rome 3 Gallery.  I will be adding comments in individual pictures in the gallery soon.

Next stop, Vatican City!

Karen and I aren’t hiking people.  You’d think that being exposed to the panaramic view of the evergreens here in the Northwest would have transform us, but nope.  Last week, our small group forced us all into the jungle in the form of a tent-camping trip to Wallace Falls, where Erick insisted that the hiking trail is super easy.

Jun brought an oversized 12 men tent partitioned into two sleeping quarters and a common area.  As small group tradition, we had to play a few games of Bang before we hit the sacks…

I must say that this is one interesting camp ground.  There were loud popping noises in the parking lot (popcorn machine? wild animals?), and the unmistakable music of the passing train serenaded us through the night.

In the morning, we identified the source of the popping noise…

On the way toward the trail to the Upper Falls, Karen and I discovered this sign…

Hmm, that black windy diamond didn’t seem to suggest an easy trail…

Definitely not an easy trail.  After suffering immense dehydration, we finally reached the destination.

Where we were greeted by a stealthy thief…

A chipmunk.  It’s the first time I’ve seen one!  I guess that made the trip all worth it.  🙂

Click here for more pictures from Wallace Falls.

(continued from previous Europe trip entry…)

Now we were ready to hit the big Roman attractions, and where else could we have chosen but…

The Colosseum.  Pictures do not do justice the size of this monster.  As soon as we descended the steps to approach the structure, we were greeted by these friendly Gladiators, who Karen took a picture with…

What a nice service from the Colosseum, I thought.  What?  You want me in the picture too?  And you’ll take the picture for us?  Hand you the camera?  Now wait a minute…

As soon as I denied his request, he immediately asked for money.  Initially I refused, but after some haggling, I relented and handed him just a few petty euros.  He watched me in disgust as we hurriedly zipped out of there.  Apparently I had missed this crucial paragraph in my guidebook:

Beware of Goofy Gladiators: For a fee, the incredibly crude modern-day gladiators snuff out their cigarettes and pose for photos.  They take easy-to-swindle tourists for too much money.  Watch out if you tangle with these guys (they’re armed… and accustomed to getting as much as 100 euros from naive Asian tourists).

I suppose we got off easy.

It may be difficult to identify the long line in this picture, but a long line runs somewhere along the middle of the building.  Armed with the Rick Steve guide, we headed to a secret passage that led to a covert ticket booth at a deserted side of the Roman Forum.  Colosseum wait time: 1 hour.  Deserted entrance wait time: 2 minutes.

After what seemed like an endless flight of stairs, we entered the interior…

saw some ancient roman misplaced labels…

and breathed in the immense size of the interior of this place. Pictures cannot do justice unless the picture is enlarged to an appreciable dimension.

The bottom part was supposed to house different trap doors for wild beasts to appear and devour the gladiators.

Finally, we’ve visited our first Roman attraction–a building from the first century where the Romans stuck two theatres together to watch people get their body parts chewed off and people getting killed.  Such savage sport… glad we don’t have anything like this today.  Oh wait, I guess there’s boxing.

After exiting the colosseum, we headed toward…

…the Arch of Constantine, where Emperor Constantine defeated Maxentius in the Battle of Milvian Bridge after seeing the vision of a cross in the sky the night before.  This is where Christianity is legalized.  Before AD 300, you were killed as a Christian, but afterwards, you were killed for not being one.

After this, we headed over to the Roman Forum next door, but I’ll share that next time, on my blog!

(continued from previous entry)

As Karen and I headed out in our Quest, we had to hike across the elegant streets of Rome, covered with cobble stones.

While the street texture may prove difficult to navigate in high heels, Karen and I were able to romantically strode along the Italian streets in our sandals. Along the way, we noticed the excellent parking job of some of these locals.

As we entered the major street of Via Nazionale, we observed the extravagant facade with statues on many buildings…

Also, Rome buildings were often painted with the bright, cheerful portion of the visible spectrum. Home Depot would make a fortune in Rome.

At the end of Via Nationzale, we entered the gigantic Piazza della Repubblica…

There used to be wood furnaces that heated up the water for some serious bath, a long, long time ago. In the center stood the statue of Victor Emmanuel (whoever he is), and surrounding it were four water nymphs (censored).

Finally, we descended into the underground mall of the train station (Termini) in search of the cable, but none of the stores carried it. On the way, I attempted to make an ATM withdraw, but instead of the “Thank you, here’s your money”, I got something equivalent to “No money for you! Card not enabled for international withdraw.” Oh oh. Houston, we got a problem.

At this point we were famished, so we dropped by a self-service restaurant.

My seafood salad was surprisingly delicious…

But Karen got what appeared to be raw Mongolian BBQ platter…

I hope it was really prosciutto wasn’t labeled “E. Coli 7 Euros”.

As we made our way to the cassiere (cashier), a huge advertisement caught my attention: “Speciale: Cappuccino 0.50 Euro”. At such an inexpensive price, we bought one, thinking of sharing the warm, luscious coffee over lunch. Instead, we got this…

The size of the cup proved to be insignificant, and the volume of the content was even more underwhelming. For the record, not a single sip had been taken prior to the photography.

After lunch, we ventured across the land of the terminals to seek the wisdom of the masters at the TI (Tourist Info), who set us out on a journey to the nearest computer store. Finally, a glimmer of hope! After arriving at the store at 3:30, we glanced inside only to stare into darkness. Closed. What self-respecting store is closed at 3:30 in the afternoon! A quick inspection of the sign revealed the hours 8-1, 4-6. Slackers! Apparently it was common for Italians to take a siesta, or an “afternoon nap/rest”.

As we waited impatiently across the street at Piazza Indipendenza, the atmosphere of Europe became evident as the music of accordian surrounded the place…

Finally at 4pm, the store opened. Once again we were met with the disappointment of visiting a store that sold the Ipod but not the cable. A salesperson pointed us to yet another store, extending our scavenger hunt. Along the way, we eyed an European furniture store in gluttany, wishing we could import it all…

After arriving the store, once again we found Ipod, but no cable. At this point were struck with despair, so we returned to the first computer store to salvage our vacation by purchasing their cheapest cable… the one came with an Ipod. As I tried bargaining with the manager to explain the ethical implications of bundling an Ipod with the cable, he replied, “If you need just cable, go to Apple store”. Apple store?! Where!!!

To make a long store short, it was a Mac Store and… without the IPod bundle, it was indeed easier on the wallet. Praise God! Mission accomplished.

On the way back, we noticed the nationalism of the Italians…

And took some random pictures, now that memory space was no longer an issue…

For dinner, we went to the Flann O’Brien Irish Pub, which according to Rick Steve’s Italy Tour Guide, “is an entertaining place for a light meal, fine Irish beer, live sporting events on TV, and perhaps the most Italian crowd of all.” Being a novice at ordering Italian cruisine, I inquired the waitress about their special.

“Lasagna”, she replied.

“Uno Lasagna”, I ordered the authentic italian food by giving her the finger. The index finger.

As a side note, I didn’t realize that the index finger actually meant two in Italy. One would use just the thumb to indicate “one”. Glad she understood, because contrary to what I had ingrained into my mind as Lasagna as early as infancy, the plate that came was…

Ravioli skins in Ravioli sauce?! “Lasagna”, the waitress insisted. Oh… okay.

Now that our first quest is complete, which sights and monuments shall James and Karen uncover? What other Italian cultural nuisances will unfold? What about the ATM situation and the inability to replenish our cash supply? Find out next time… on my blog! 😀

(continued from yesterday)

Apparently the IPod plug arrived in Europe with us but the USB cable connecting the iPod to the plug itself did not. This Series of Unfortunate Events left us with the need to save space by lowering the picture resolution to those on par with mosaics. Here’s a sample of that…

IMG style=”BORDER-TOP-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-LEFT-WIDTH: 0px; BORDER-BOTTOM-WIDTH: 0px; HEIGHT: 400px; BORDER-RIGHT-WIDTH: 0px” alt=”” src=”/blogs/images/20060820/mosaic.jpg”>

After struggling with this, we decided against it as it might be a difficult undertaking to find picture frames for our 8mm x 10mm pictures. To salvage this fiasco, we decided to turn our next day into an adventure: “The Quest for the Holy Cable”.

The next morning, Karen and I woozily woke up and stumbled our way to the breakfast table. I selected my choice cereal…

…and scooped some milk out of the cocktail bowl.

As I poured it on my cereal, I noticed that the Italian milk exhibited a peculiar lumpy texture, the texture of… yogurt!! Oops. Looks like this bowl is making its way to Karen.

I figured it was time to sober up through the potent aid of caffeine. I approached the coffee machine, depressed the button labeled “Cappuccino”, and voila! Out gushed this cappuccino…

I took a sip. Mmmm…… Not bad. Would have been nicer, though, had there actually been coffee in this cream. A nun later explained (with words none of which I understood), that to get Cappuccino, the cup needed to be filled with expresso first. In America, when I see a button labeled “Cappuccino” and I press it, I expect “Cappuccino”. Apparently the Italians think otherwise.

Then I picked up a couple of Italian breads. They are always deviously served cold and impart a sour taste. Italian bread is versatile, however, as it doubles as a weapon of mass destruction when tossed and can easily penetrate a wall or create an oversized bruise on a human target.

The Nutella has its origins in Italy and tasted just as good as the ones in the States. Then there was the Schinkencreme…

Took one bite. Yup. Cat food. Garfield would love this stuff.

Afterwards, we headed out toward the Main Terminal in search of our treasure. What would we find along the way? Would we find the cable? Find out next time… on my blog! 😛

 

 

Back in May, Karen and I plucked ourselves from our daily routines and took a three week vacation to Europe. Neither of us had been there, but we’ve certainly heard of its reputation for two things: lots of history… and lots of theft. Many of you have expressed the desire to see our pictures before your grand-kids are born, so let me just take you through our journey through select pictures.

The trip didn’t sink in until we hopped on the Northwest plane and realized we were finally going to take a step in the European soil! The plane definitely had an upgrade in the multimedia system since the last time I rode it.

40+ Movie on demand! This includes Blockbuster movies, Disney movies to quiet those noisy brats, and games including trivia that you can play with other people on the plane! Wow. The ability to pause the movie when the rude pilot interrupted us or when food came was priceless. The geek in me noticed it was a linux system with each screen as a different console, so perhaps there’s some market opportunity for Microsoft here.. Oops, back to our story.

Our connecting flight was in Netherlands, and everything felt like an American airport, aside from the language, until we noticed airport security dressed in green camouflage suits and carried semi-automatic weapons suspiciously resembling the AK-47s. Yeah. I was glad I wrote my will before I left town.

When it came to nature calls, Netherland airport took the cake. As I walked in, soothing ambient music filled the air, and I was surrounded by a gorgeous view of the city… wallpaper. I must give credit where credit is due, as their urinal design is a piece of excellent engineering. The contemporary design of this stall is elegant, and yet the ergonomics of the design provide more splash resistance. Talk about raising the bar.

Now with one panoramic view across all the walls, the entire experience felt eerily like doing a #1 onto someone’s roof, but there was something mysteriously soothing about taking care of nature… in nature. (Jeffrey should know, after that “Ferry” incident. 😀 )

Upon arriving in Rome, Italy, we decided to take the Leonardo Express, a train that connected the airport with the city. Wow, a city that succeeded in building aiport connection rails. I was definitely not in Seattle any more.

Then we took a walk through a good portion of the city and finally found the first place we’re staying, Il Rosario. A convent.

After a short nap for the jet lag, the night had descended and hunger had struck, so we randomly picked a place to dine. One thing I have to say… don’t take American service for granted. The Italian waiter was slow and unresponsive beyond belief! The worst Chinese restaurants in America seemed like Red Robins to this place when it comes to service.

After what seemed like an eternity, we got our orders, a tuna pasta…

and some Italian pizza…

Don’t be fooled by my photography. We were slightly disappointed, as the quality of this food was easily exceeded by Karen’s own cooking, thanks to her private tutor, Giada de Laurentiis on the Food Network. Maybe we hyped ourselves up too much for authentic Italian food, but this stuff was certainly… edible.

After that we headed back to the convent.

Our room was institutional and smaller than those found in most American hotels, but it was immaculate and came with a private bathroom. After Karen took a shower, we realized a design flaw…

The place had nothing for water containment, and the shower drain, partially blocked by the mat, was also partially cluttered. The result…

No, those weren’t shiny tiles. The reflection stemmed from the deluge that escaped the confinement of the bathroom and ventured through the doorcrack into our bedroom. I certainly wasn’t expecting to role-play a hotel maid on our first night in Italy.

After taking care of the floor, I opened my bag and … OH NO! We forgot to bring a critical item, the item so crucial that it would decimate the fabrics of our vacation. Which item was this? And how did we rectify this situation? Find out next time… on my blog. 😛

Every year people attend the Tulip Festival.  This year, olivetheotherreindeer suggested we try something different, such as going to the Lavender Festival at Sequim, which lasts only one weekend!

To get to Sequim, we had to take the ferry across the Puget Sound.

When I was about to take pictures of the guys, the announcement came for people to return to their vehicles.  Bummer!

The first farm we went to was called Purple Haze…

Erick and Jeffrey started by trying out some local delicacy, like the Lavender Virgin Margarita…

Jeffrey immediately gave it the thumbs down.  There was also the lavender white chocolate ice cream, which according to Carol, just tasted like regular white chocolate ice cream.

That’s when we started taking pictures…

And more pictures…

We paid $10 for unlimited access to 7 different farms, with free shuttling service provided from farm to farm.  The central hub is at downtown Sequim, so we took the bus to get there.  It was a squeeze…

I was sandwiched so badly I had a hard time even getting my camera out, but as you can see from the picture, some of us were just comfortably sitting on the seats while the rest of us suffered.

We arrived at the hub where it resembles a fair with booths and long lines all over the place.  Many of us opted for the Gyro for lunch…

After lunch, Erick found this incredibly large farm with called Lost Mountain, which was hyped with “100 different species of Lavender!!!”  So to Lost Mountain we went.  We took the bus again, and this time we squeezed two rows between the aisles!  After the bus made its first stop, we were able to sit down, but not before our hands turned tomato red…

Picture doesn’t do justice to the colors of our hands.  Anyway, we arrived at Lost Mountain…

So we did find a hundred species of Lavender, but apparently there was only one of each, contained in a small patch of land!  We were conned.  Nevertheless, we made the most out of the place.  One interesting feature was a water mill running purple water…

It’s hard to see the purple water, but I assure you it was purple.  Karen also decided to bring out her favorite cartoon character to join the fun…

Also some of us decided to collect their own lavender…

I have no idea what olivethereindeer was cutting there…

By the time we were ready to go, we had to wait in line for the bus again.  Some people’s sunburns were starting to become apparent as a strange mark surfaced on my back…

It wasn’t really a burn, but I still have this mark today.  Maybe it’s from the camera strap?

Turned out we weren’t able to get onto the next two buses because they were both full, so we ended up waiting for an hour!  Next time, we should just drive instead of taking the shuttle…  While most of us were just standing around, some of us managed to make the time productive.

Finally we were able to squeeze on the bus and return to our parking lot.  That’s when we decided to check out at the beach with the lighthouse.  On the way, Erick took a wrong turn somewhere and we ended up getting a nice view of…

A deer.  He stared at us as we made a U turn in someone’s back yard.

When we arrived at the beach, there was a lighthouse in view, but it was really small.  Even with my super duper 300x zoom lense, I was still only able to offer you this picture with minimal details…

Unfortunately to reach the lighthouse required a 5.5 mile hike, each way!  That’s like circling Green Lake four times!  We decided to pass and just enjoy the beach…

Erick was really into playing chicken fight on a log…

After that, a shark appeared in the water…

Okay, so there was no shark, but we did take a funny picture!  😛

Then it was time to go home.  We first dropped by Taco Time for some to-go dinner, and then we got held up waiting for the draw bridge.  The traffic literally stopped for 10 minutes. While waiting, Jeffrey had an emergency crisis and needed a place to…  download some software.

Unfortunately he couldn’t find an outlet.  Later Johnny, Angela, Jeffrey and Grace stopped at an alternate location while the rest of us headed over to the Ferry.  We thought they didn’t make it to the 9:20 ferry because they were the fifth car in line for the next ferry, but they managed to squeeze in.  Close call!

Anyway, then we took the ferry ride home…

That’s it, folks, our Lavender Festival trip!  It was fun, but we most likely won’t be going another Lavender trip for a long time.

Okay, after hearing about the bunnies that flooded Greeklake, Karen and I decided to pay our tribute last weekend.  There weren’t as many as Grace and Carol saw, perhaps they were taking an early July 4th vacation, but we managed to catch the few lazy ones that remained…

It was early in the morning, so a bunny did the morning cleanup, which was slightly faster than the 40 minutes I usually take in the morning…

 

Because the weather was nice, the squirrel joined the Fellowship of the Fuzzballs.

Every story has a villian, and on this day, a man who wanted to lay at the field wasn’t generous enough to share the field with these poor, innocent rabbits.  He began chasing them away by flinging his jacket on the grass over and over again.  The rabbits ran…

… and went hiding.  Unfortunately some have not truly learned the art of stealth…

After a brief moment, the man settled at a corner of the field, so the rabbits developed enough courage to come crawling back.  One rabbit got so much courage that he was “close and personal” to me, void of any fear of human contact.  “What do you want, a glamour shot?!”  So I took one…

Unfortunately I don’t have his email address, so I can’t send it to him.  Maybe he can check find my xanga blog.  Speaking of blogs, I better stop here before people accuse me of taking a page out of Grace’s blog.  😛

This morning Karen and I woke up super early to attend the free Rick Steve seminar on Italy.  It was basically a sight-seeing slideshow, although she did offer some practical tips such as how to bypass the 2 hour lines at the Uffizi gallery.  Basically you calling ahead and reserve the ticket, and then just wave at all the silly people waiting in the insane line and walk straight up to the will-call.  There was quite a bit of good info in the seminar, although most of it can be found in Rick Steve’s Europe Through The Backdoor.  At the end, the man himself, who just returned from Italy, showed up and answered some questions.

After that we went to the Mac Store to buy Karen a new battery.  Karen has a Powerbook, and its battery life is exactly 5 minutes.  No more.  No less.  Yeah… a new battery is warranted.  Unfortunately Apple won’t sell them because it’s an older model, and Mac Store is sold out!  Okay, okay… internet here we come.  Selection at the expense of instant graification…

Being a hot day, we dropped by Starbucks for a Frappuchino before heading over to the Happyfish BBQ.  I didn’t realize the Starbucks cups are smaller than ever!  And I was complaining when they did their first downsizing.  At this rate, soon the Tall will be the size of a shot glass!

Now, can anyone tell me where this is?

You may be tempted to say Hawaii, but it’s actually Lincoln Park in West Seattle, where the Happyfish BBQ is!  Anyway, I don’t have a story today, but I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.  Let’s start with Johnny handing Ben a piece of … whatever.

Some people were definitely experiencing some football action…

While others were playing the bouncy rock game…

Amazingly, Karen actually bounced 4 times, as we can sort of witness in this next picture. Yes that’s four, not three, although the last two are sort of compressed…

Of course, that’s after 53,847 attempts, but it’s still reason to celebrate.

Even Allen and Justine joined us, along with Madeline whose head was gripped like a basketball by Allen.  First he cradles her like a football, and now basketball.  What’s next?  I hope not soccer!

While we were at it, we took a few other shots…

And of course, Angela was nice enough to offer to take one for Karen and I…

Here’s a picture I had a harder time getting cooperation for, but we managed to pull it off.

After that, we decided to try finding some interesting pictures take, including balancing on a log…

Or a rock…

Then we looked for … creative shots…

So that’s pretty much the Happyfish BBQ.  Okay, so there were more people at the BBQ, but this is a blog, not a picture gallery!  Keeping things interesting is the key, so only pictures that fit with my blog entry make it here.  Okay, time to check for sunburns and go to sleep!

Yesterday, a man got lost in the wilderness when he sensed something odd moving around him.  He glanced around but noticed nothing but odd-looking trees.  When he turned back to look for the path, a golem grabbed him and imprisoned him within a thick, coarse trunk.

After a few hours of struggling, he managed to free himself from the tree and lept from the tree.  The noise from the perfect 10 landing disturbed the sleeping golem, whose thunderous thumping resonated across the forest as he rushed to the scene.  Wittingly, the agile man climbed up another trunk and hid in the tree.

At an opportune moment when the golem looked away, the man lept from the tree and headed for the cliff, with the golem and his pounding steps rushing behind.  Left without a choice, the man said a quick prayer and lept from the top of the cliff, landed in the river, and climbed his way up a boulder.

With the fearless golem also leaping from the top of the water fall, the man quickly fled from the boulder and looked for a place to hide.

He noticed a cliff nearby, so he used his bare hands to climb up the cliff, Mission Impossible style.

At this point, the golem had swum toward the boulder, climbed atop it, made a thunderous roar, and looked around for the man.

At that point, a golem huntress leaped out from nowhere and strangled the golem to death.

That’s when the man noticed that at the end of the double-rainbow sat a mermaid on a stump!

He took her home and lived happily everafter. Okay, I think my story has officially gone downhills.  Anyway, overall it was a fun trip to the Snoqualmie Falls.

THE END