This is so cool! More stop-motion action! Too bad JJ didn't do this one.
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Bubbletea gang comes to town
My friends came to visit! They drove all the way from Toronto: Tiffany & Jim, Philip, Bryan & Erica. They split up and saw different things (Lincoln Park Zoo vs Wendella Boat Cruise, helicopter rides, Shedd Aquarium, grocery shopping, mario-karting etc etc). I'm so glad they came. We even went to North Beach and had a silly ol' time in Lake Michigan...
The water was very cold that day...
Of course, we made a stop at the newly polished "bean"!
Thanks guys for coming to visit!
The water was very cold that day...
Of course, we made a stop at the newly polished "bean"!
Thanks guys for coming to visit!
Tuesday, July 18, 2006
Italy: Day 7
Day 7:
Today was our last day in Rome. We only had half a day before we had to leave for the airport so we stayed close to the hotel and saw the rest of the Colosseum and Palatine Hill, which we didn't get to on the first day.
The views from the hill.
From inside the Palatine Museum
Caesar Donna!
At the Colosseum, we saw an over the hill Russell Crowe trying to pick fights.
From inside the Colosseum
That brings us to the end of our trip.
We flew back to the quirky Amsterdam airport
and stayed overnight before coming back to Chicago in the morning.
We had an amazing vacation. Lots of good food, good sight seeing, and a whole week of not thinking about work!
Today was our last day in Rome. We only had half a day before we had to leave for the airport so we stayed close to the hotel and saw the rest of the Colosseum and Palatine Hill, which we didn't get to on the first day.
The views from the hill.
From inside the Palatine Museum
Caesar Donna!
At the Colosseum, we saw an over the hill Russell Crowe trying to pick fights.
From inside the Colosseum
That brings us to the end of our trip.
We flew back to the quirky Amsterdam airport
and stayed overnight before coming back to Chicago in the morning.
We had an amazing vacation. Lots of good food, good sight seeing, and a whole week of not thinking about work!
Monday, July 17, 2006
Italy: Day 6
Finally, a morning where we had a leisurely breakfast! This time, we got to enjoy our bread (JJ really started liking the hard bread that they kept giving us while I still stuck with the croissants) and our cafe au lait. I'm really going to miss the great coffee here.
Now that we're experts on the public transportation system, we bought a bus-pass for the day and made our way around the not-so-easily accessible parts of the city. Our first stop was the Santa Maria della Vittoria where Bernini's famous sculpture, The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, was located. We walked outside by the Moses Fountain,
and then, we hopped on a bus towards Campo de' Fiori. We got off by the Area Sacra di Largo Argentina and along the way to the square, we saw the biggest mortadella ever!
Once we got to the square, I had expected more but it really was just farmer's market. Some weird looking squash:
Moving on, we headed towards the Jewish Ghetto. Walking along the road by the Tiber River, we found the best parking job of the day
and the police directing traffic.
In the Jewish Ghetto neighbourhood, we had some of the best pizza in the city! Who would've thought that potatoes and eggplant on pizza worked so well!
Back out to the Tiber River, we saw Tiber Island,
the Temple of Venus,
and the Mouth of Truth. JJ did not get his hand bit off so that's good news heehee :)
Wandering further south, we found the site where all the taxis were parked because of the taxi strike that was happening.
And took a break by the Circo Massimo (where the World Cup celebrations, and numerous ancient Roman chariot races, were held!)
You can see the Palatine Hill behind the Circo Massimo too.
We stopped to check our map to see where we should go next (that map got a lot of use out of it!)
And headed to the Piazza del Popolo to check out a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit about his machines. It was cool because they had all these little wooden models of his inventions from his sketchbook and they included the helicopter,
studies of friction using these bearings,
and this mirror closet!
Continuing with our hodge-podge of activities, we went for a walk through the Villa Borghese. It was owned by a rich family but their actual house (now, a museum that you can only go to by reservation and it was closed on Monday anyway) was closed. Anyways, there was this pond where you can rent a boat and row around in it. It looked pretty slimy though...
Next, we wandered over to the Termini which is the giant terminal where all sorts of buses and trains stop. It would be where you take the Eurostar but we didn't this time. Inside, they had these shops and we saw a Nike store! Donna means "lady" in Italian so it was funny seeing it all over the place.
Around Termini, there are a lot of cheap eats and after days of Italian food, we really wanted some of the gyro fast food joints that we saw almost everywhere. In the end, we settled for a nice dinner of Italian food since it was our last dinner in Rome. It was pretty good but you can tell that it was priced for tourists. We both thought our dinner near the Trevi Fountain was much better (better prosciutto, better bread, better meats, better potatoes, etc) but it was still pretty decent.
And for the first night, we went back to the hotel a little early because our feet were so tired from walking for 6 days straight!
Now that we're experts on the public transportation system, we bought a bus-pass for the day and made our way around the not-so-easily accessible parts of the city. Our first stop was the Santa Maria della Vittoria where Bernini's famous sculpture, The Ecstasy of St. Theresa, was located. We walked outside by the Moses Fountain,
and then, we hopped on a bus towards Campo de' Fiori. We got off by the Area Sacra di Largo Argentina and along the way to the square, we saw the biggest mortadella ever!
Once we got to the square, I had expected more but it really was just farmer's market. Some weird looking squash:
Moving on, we headed towards the Jewish Ghetto. Walking along the road by the Tiber River, we found the best parking job of the day
and the police directing traffic.
In the Jewish Ghetto neighbourhood, we had some of the best pizza in the city! Who would've thought that potatoes and eggplant on pizza worked so well!
Back out to the Tiber River, we saw Tiber Island,
the Temple of Venus,
and the Mouth of Truth. JJ did not get his hand bit off so that's good news heehee :)
Wandering further south, we found the site where all the taxis were parked because of the taxi strike that was happening.
And took a break by the Circo Massimo (where the World Cup celebrations, and numerous ancient Roman chariot races, were held!)
You can see the Palatine Hill behind the Circo Massimo too.
We stopped to check our map to see where we should go next (that map got a lot of use out of it!)
And headed to the Piazza del Popolo to check out a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit about his machines. It was cool because they had all these little wooden models of his inventions from his sketchbook and they included the helicopter,
studies of friction using these bearings,
and this mirror closet!
Continuing with our hodge-podge of activities, we went for a walk through the Villa Borghese. It was owned by a rich family but their actual house (now, a museum that you can only go to by reservation and it was closed on Monday anyway) was closed. Anyways, there was this pond where you can rent a boat and row around in it. It looked pretty slimy though...
Next, we wandered over to the Termini which is the giant terminal where all sorts of buses and trains stop. It would be where you take the Eurostar but we didn't this time. Inside, they had these shops and we saw a Nike store! Donna means "lady" in Italian so it was funny seeing it all over the place.
Around Termini, there are a lot of cheap eats and after days of Italian food, we really wanted some of the gyro fast food joints that we saw almost everywhere. In the end, we settled for a nice dinner of Italian food since it was our last dinner in Rome. It was pretty good but you can tell that it was priced for tourists. We both thought our dinner near the Trevi Fountain was much better (better prosciutto, better bread, better meats, better potatoes, etc) but it was still pretty decent.
And for the first night, we went back to the hotel a little early because our feet were so tired from walking for 6 days straight!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
Italy: Day 5
Day 5:
After four straight days of Italian food, we needed a break.
Our first tourist stop for the day was the Trevi Fountain. We threw coins in and made wishes.
As luck would have it, San Crispino, supposedly the best gelato in Rome, was just down the street. My wish came true!
That gelato was so very very good.
We didn't have too much planned for the rest of the day so we wandered around a lot and saw some pretty random "Italian" stuff.
Roma Lamborghini dealership.
A real life Pringles can. No wait, it was just a glorified Segway.
Luigi?
The Ferrari Store!
They talk about the Spanish Steps as a big tourist attraction but I still didn't get it. It's just really crowded stairs, people.
We ended the day with another amazing dinner. The prosciutto there is so good.
Trevi Fountain at night.
After four straight days of Italian food, we needed a break.
Our first tourist stop for the day was the Trevi Fountain. We threw coins in and made wishes.
As luck would have it, San Crispino, supposedly the best gelato in Rome, was just down the street. My wish came true!
That gelato was so very very good.
We didn't have too much planned for the rest of the day so we wandered around a lot and saw some pretty random "Italian" stuff.
Roma Lamborghini dealership.
A real life Pringles can. No wait, it was just a glorified Segway.
Luigi?
The Ferrari Store!
They talk about the Spanish Steps as a big tourist attraction but I still didn't get it. It's just really crowded stairs, people.
We ended the day with another amazing dinner. The prosciutto there is so good.
Trevi Fountain at night.
Saturday, July 15, 2006
Italy: Day 4
Despite last night's stressful experience on Rome's public transportation, we made it up for yet another 6:45am departure to southern Italy - a quick stopover in Naples and onwards to Pompeii.
We joined Carrani Tours once again and it was funny because we got the same tour guide as we did on our trip to Florence. Three hours later after a bathroom break and a horrible traffic jam due to a crazy accident, we arrived in Naples.
We picked up our local tour guide, Constantino, in Naples and he led us through a few sites in Naples. Unfortunately, we probably had about an hour (maybe not even an hour) so we really only saw the outside of a few things. Among them was the Maschio Angioino Castle (aka Castel Nuovo):
Moving along towards Pompeii, we passed by the town of Herculaneum (Ercolano) that was also buried from the eruption of what is now Mt. Vesuvius. We caught glimpses of the Bay of Naples and the mountain chain that dipped into the Tyrrhenian Sea ending with the island of Capri.
We had lunch in Pompeii on a nice terrace.
However, we were not given enough food at all (again, hate those tour group lunches). Everyone on the tour was unimpressed and upset as well.
In the little square outside the entrance to the ruins, shops lined the streets with various tacky souvenirs. Among them was a juice stand that sold spremuta and lemonade made from these giant lemons.
Entering the archaelogical wonder of Pompeii, Constantino led us through a series of Pompeiian ruins of gyms,
amphitheatres,
bakeries (this is where they mill their flour),
houses (note that is a mosaic of a "Beware the Dog!" sign!),
wine shops, and even a brothel!
We saw some preserved people (these are reverse castings - I think that's what it's called - of the people which were molded by the ash that covered them after the eruption).
It's strange how overwhelming this is, considering it captures the exact moment of when they died. I found their emotions were clearly captured by the positions that they were in.
We ended our tour in the center of the city where the main temple, main court yard, town hall, currency exchanges, among other things, all met.
Walking through Pompeii, you get a sense of how intelligent these people were. They didn't have a good plumbing system and the streets were quite polluted. As a result, they built these stepping stones raised above the main road in order for people to step cleanly from one major public building to another. Also, you can even see the grooves of the wheels that have worn into the stone road. Everything was just so impressive and it all ended in 79 AD.
We joined Carrani Tours once again and it was funny because we got the same tour guide as we did on our trip to Florence. Three hours later after a bathroom break and a horrible traffic jam due to a crazy accident, we arrived in Naples.
We picked up our local tour guide, Constantino, in Naples and he led us through a few sites in Naples. Unfortunately, we probably had about an hour (maybe not even an hour) so we really only saw the outside of a few things. Among them was the Maschio Angioino Castle (aka Castel Nuovo):
Moving along towards Pompeii, we passed by the town of Herculaneum (Ercolano) that was also buried from the eruption of what is now Mt. Vesuvius. We caught glimpses of the Bay of Naples and the mountain chain that dipped into the Tyrrhenian Sea ending with the island of Capri.
We had lunch in Pompeii on a nice terrace.
However, we were not given enough food at all (again, hate those tour group lunches). Everyone on the tour was unimpressed and upset as well.
In the little square outside the entrance to the ruins, shops lined the streets with various tacky souvenirs. Among them was a juice stand that sold spremuta and lemonade made from these giant lemons.
Entering the archaelogical wonder of Pompeii, Constantino led us through a series of Pompeiian ruins of gyms,
amphitheatres,
bakeries (this is where they mill their flour),
houses (note that is a mosaic of a "Beware the Dog!" sign!),
wine shops, and even a brothel!
We saw some preserved people (these are reverse castings - I think that's what it's called - of the people which were molded by the ash that covered them after the eruption).
It's strange how overwhelming this is, considering it captures the exact moment of when they died. I found their emotions were clearly captured by the positions that they were in.
We ended our tour in the center of the city where the main temple, main court yard, town hall, currency exchanges, among other things, all met.
Walking through Pompeii, you get a sense of how intelligent these people were. They didn't have a good plumbing system and the streets were quite polluted. As a result, they built these stepping stones raised above the main road in order for people to step cleanly from one major public building to another. Also, you can even see the grooves of the wheels that have worn into the stone road. Everything was just so impressive and it all ended in 79 AD.
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