Hello from Rome! We have been staying with my (Andrea) family in Rome since Sunday. My uncle Alfredo (my mom's brother), aunt Lolita, and cousin Freddy have been nice enough to let us stay with them while we've been in Rome. They have internet and computers so I'm getting back to updating the blog. Let's see what I remember from a week ago...
Tuesday
Our train took us to a train station in Venice but we had to transfer to another train to get us into downtown Venice. We managed that just fine and got on a Vaporetto, a Venitian passenger ferry. The Rick Steves Italy book has been really helpful and we got on the right Vaporetto. We got off at the Academia Bridge and followed the directions from the book to the hotel. Rick Steves always notes that in Venice it's really easy to get lost so we were pretty sure we would have trouble finding our place. Luckily, we found it just fine. You just have to always be looking up to read the signs pointing you in the direction you need to go which often feels wrong since you are walking down what seems to be an alley but it's actually the place you need to be. Most signs just have arrows pointing you to the place you want to go but the signs vary from professional printed signs (like street signs when you drive in other cities) to hand-written paper signs and even graffiti (which was helpful on many occasions).
When we arrived at the hotel, there was a big tourist group with a guide who was speaking in Spanish about some structure next to the hotel. In passing, I didn't really hear anything and we made a mental note to look up what the place was at some point. Later, we would find out. Cue the creepy music.
The hotel was clean and nice but was a mix of very grandma-esque lavish furnishings that were slightly on the cheesy side. No offense to any grandmas. But hopefully you get the idea. Everything was very flowery, plush, velvet, and just a little too decorated. The man at the hotel greeted us with a little English and was very nice. Our room was decorated with mustard yellow fabric everywhere. Two things were my favorite. Number 1, the mirror. The mirror hung above a dresser (decorated with a big white doily). The "frame" of mirror looked like a giant rectangular scrunchie. It was mustard yellow and also resembled a bunch of squished fortune cookies made out of velvet. Yikes! Number 2, the giant oversized couch. We took a picture of me sitting on it and it really looked like when you put a baby on a couch or in plays when they build huge couches and the actress sits on it. I had to almost jump up to sit on it. And yes, it was made out of mustard yellow velvet material. Yikes times 2.
On the first day, we took a stroll around Venice. We walked back over the Academia bridge and wandered around the area. There was an older man who was walking behind us for a while and while Evan thought he was following us, I was pretty sure he was just a little drunk. He walked past us and we didn't see him again so Evan stopped worrying. We walked along one of the big canals and stopped by a grocery store to buy some snacks. I bought Oreos (my fave) and Evan bought a drink he thought would be delicious. It was San Pellegrino something in a black can. So of course, being adventorous, Evan bought it. It turned out to be awful so I sat there enjoying my oreos while Evan tried to power through the drink. After the walk, we made our way back to the hotel and called it a night.
Wednesday
Since its been so long since I've updated the blog, I'm sure I'm missing details and mixing up days/activities... I think we went to a little cafe near our hotel for breakfast. We walked over to St. Mark's Square (Piazza San Marco) and went to the Correr Museum which had lots of statues. Then we went to the Basilica. In many of the churches that we went to, there was a dress code. No bare sholders (or spaghetti straps) or bare knees, for men or women. I was usually wearing tankity tops so I made sure to bring a little cardigan or something to cover up but others did not. The first thing we saw inside the Basilica was the fashion police. Best job ever. The fashion police look at each person walking in the Basllica and they pull you aside if you violate any of the rules. I assumed they would just make you leave but that's when we noticed a girl wearing what looked like a big paper placemat or tablecloth. They give any violators the paper and make them wrap it around their waste or shoulders (or both, I guess). It was so strange to see people walking around with wrapping paper on their bodies in such an old church. But, I guess it passes the fashion police's requirements.
The Basilica was incredibly old, dark, and as always, had detail everywhere. It only took about 10 minutes to get through (since we didn't want to pay to see the extra areas). We walked outside to find the entrance to Palazzo Ducale. Apparently, we walked right past it and went too far. But, we walked over the bridge where everyone was taking pictures of the Bridge Of Sighs, which is in the Plazzo Ducale. We found the entrance, and went inside. It's a really neat place that includes a tour of the Dogi Apartments (for the military leaders of Venice), the prison, and the Bridge of Sighs. The Bridge of Sighs was the last time prisoners saw anything outside of the prison walls as they made their way into prison. We also toured prison cells and saw some pieces of wall and paper that prisoners had written or drawn on inside the prison. It was very spooky but cool at the same time. Outside of the palace, in the courtyard, were two big statues. In the Rick Steves book, he said that they were of Moses and Paul Newman. I stopped reading at that point (bad idea since he clarified that they were probably Neptune and Mars), and thought it was so strange that they would have a statue of Paul Newman... Yeah, it wasn't Paul Newman but we still took a picture of it and it really looked like him... :-)
At some point we went to a restaurant nearby. Evan ordered steak which came out as a big chunk of pork. He was hungry so didn't say anything. And it's a good thing he didn't because a few minutes later we heard some sort of commotion on the other side of the restaurant. A guy and a girl (they sounded Australian) were in a tiff with the waiter, and a man who was probably the manager or owner. It was something about the restaurant charging them for something they didn't order. The owner kept saying "In Italy, this is what it is and its amazing. You don't appreciate what this is!!" and the girl responded, "But I didn't order that so stop saying it's so good!!", back and forth, back and forth. I don't know what happened in the end but they left and the man was pissed.
We walked over to the Ca' Pesaro museum, a modern art gallery. They were featuring a Tony Cragg exhibit, which was pretty cool. Check him out if you like modern art. Everything reminded me of inner ear canals. We were craving non-Italian food so we tried to go to the Hard Rock Cafe (shame, yes, I know). We got so lost. I'm pretty sure we walked in circles 3 or 4 times. And we were really hungry, so that didn't help. When we finally found the place, we walked in and the woman said they weren't open. Something about waiting for the water guy... It was the evening so we figured they would normally be open so it must have meant that something was wrong inside. So, we went to Burger King. Shame again, I know. Evan ordered a beer which was weird to do at a fast food restaurant. As we walked back to our hotel (or were still lost), we saw and smelled a big tube pipe thing along the street near the Hard Rock Cafe. The water guy arrived! It stunk! We're guessing that there was a sewage problem and they were pumping yucky stuff out of the restaurant.... sick....
That night (I think...), we went to bed and were listening to "The Facebook Effect" on the ipod. As we both dozed off to sleep, I turned off the ipod and Evan woke up hearing people talking outside. It was dark, probably around 10 pm and it sounded like a tour in English. I couldn't really hear very much but I could tell from Evan's reactions that it was a scary story. He was so freaked out but kept on listening. He closed the window and told me what he heard. Apparently, there is a well in the courtyard outside of the hotel. The story goes that about 200 or 300 years ago, a teenage girl was pushed into the well. The lid was placed over the well and she obviously died. When they found her skeleton, they say here mouth was wide open because she was screaming (right....). They believed she was probably from a nearby mental hospital and someone took her from there and threw her in. Something like that. Like I said, Evan was freaked. I did start thinking about the movie The Ring (creepy) but just proceeded to play BeJeweled on the iphone to ignore that it really was spooky. I'm guessing that Evan didn't sleep well that night.
Thursday
On Thursday morning we packed up our stuff, and walked over to the Peggy Guggenheim Museum. I love modern art so it was a nice change after seeing all the very old art and statues over the first half of the trip. The museum is inside Peggy's home and surrounding property, located on the Grand Canal. Its an all white house with many connected rooms and a beautiful waterfront balcony. In the garden, Yoko Ono gave the foundation a Wishing Tree (it was an olive tree). There were slips of paper to write your wish. After you write it, you hang it on the tree. We wrote one and later saw a cute one from a 6-year old kid that said "My wish is to be a superhero". I loved that tree.
They had lots of artwork from different artists (many I don't know, even though I like modern art), including Picasso and one of my faves, Jackson Pollock. His art is so bizzaro and I love it. For anyone who hasn't, I'd recommend watching "Who the #$&% is Jackson Pollock?". It's a really interesting movie with a neat twist that has a great story about a woman who stumbles upon a Pollock painting and also provides a history of Pollock.
Outside, in the garden, a woman was giving a brief history about Peggy so we listened. Peggy was a fascinating woman who seemed to be a bit quirky. We hung around the museum for a while because it was so beautiful and relaxing. Then, we got our bags, and hoppped on a vaporetto to the train station to catch our train to Florence.
Ok, enough for my typing fingers! Right now, as I've finished this post (it took a few days of revisiting since we don't have much time at internet cafes), we're in Nafplio, Greece. We're headed to Atens for a day so we can catch our flight to Santorini on Monday.
Hasta luego!
A + E
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Mas Cinque Terre and a Taste of Venezia (Venice)
Here it goes again in less than 30 minutes. Let's see what I can crank out before our train takes off for Rome.
Monday (continued)
So after the boat ride, we went back to the room and chillaxed for a bit. I think that was the day that I sat up from the bed and smacked my head into the shutters that were inside the room. It really hurt and I got a big bump, and discovered blood the next day. Andrea fail. (Evan says that maybe I don't remember which day it is because I hit my head).
Since we were going to leave really early the next day, we realized we should pay for our room that night. We hadn't figured that out before hand so we stopped by the Pizzeria, but it was closed. Then we walked up the street to a house that has massages by Stephanie who we figured was the same person Evan had talked to on the phone (and Rick Steves has referenced her in his book). There was no answer at the door. Then we tried calling Ivo's phone number and got no answer. Instead, we figured we would try to call Stephanie with only two minutes left on our phone card. Very quickly I explained that we needed to pay and she said we could just leave the money and keys in the room (this is a very strange thing given what we're used to at hotels in the US but it's actually kind of nice to have that relaxed feeling about paying). I told her we were going up the street for dinner if someone was around so she said she'd have Michelle (with the little girl) stop by. If not, we could just leave the money like she said. Okey dokey!
So we went to dinner at a fun place (where we almost stayed) at the top of the main road, Il Pirata delle Cinque Terre. Identical twin brothers run the place and the one we talked to was hilarious. He loved to talk up everyone and had lots and lots of stories about Rick Steves, Andy Steves (his son), and something about eating food off of women... (he said it was disrespectful but somehow we had a hard time believing him). The food was delicious. A few minutes later, Michelle, her daughter, and the man we presumed to be Ivo stopped by and collected the money. We just handed her the cash right there at dinner. It was funny but like I said, kind of nice to have that attitude and trust between toursits and locals.
A bit later, two girls came by and he sat them next to us and said "Oh they are from Seattle too. Perfect. You sit with them!". It turned out the girls were from Everett and Marysville. Small world. We talked to them through the dinner and they told us that they both got stung by jellyfish (we were kind of relieved that we didn't go swimming after hearing that). I told them something dumb I had done the first day we were in Vernazza (which maybe from the bump on my head I forgot to write before...).
On the first day, I used the toilet in our bathroom. I closed the lid, and hit what I thought was the flush thing. I heard lots of noise and water sounds but when I opened the lid, the toilet wasn't flushed. Confused, I tried again. It didn't work and I thought it was strange because the flush thing looked like something you'd use to turn on a shower or bathtub. I finally looked up and saw the big button you use for "big flush" or "little flush" (gross, I know). I hit the right one. After seeing water everywhere, it finally came together. The flush thing I had tried to use was for the bidet (look it up if you don't know what it is because I will not be explaining that one). All I can say is good thing I closed the lid.
Back to dinner. We finished dinner up with some limoncello (which unfortunately, we didn't like) and some yummy dessert. We headed back to our room, packed our stuff and set the alarm for 4:45 am.
Tuesday
We got up and out of the room early Tuesday morning. We walked three minutes to the train station. We looked around for the ticket booth, found no automated ones, and realized the staffed ticket booth was also not open. Oh crap. We couldn't get any tickets. The train was coming in 10 minutes (at about 6 am) and we had to catch our connecting train at 7 am in the next town. A few other people were there but we knew they had tickets because in Cinque Terre you get special yellow tickets that you validate at a yellow machine for the date you want to use it. That's how we figured out we made a mistake a few days before. The ticket sale guy had asked if we wanted a one- or two-way ticket. We said one. Should have said two! The night before, the jellyfish-stung Washingtonians told us they had been told that if you're caught on a train without a ticket, it's something like a $50 fine. It's not much if you think about it but the tickets are about $2. We figured we would just get on the train and hope they wouldn't check if we had tickets. On plenty of our train rides, no one ever checked that we had tickets so we just hoped it would be our lucky day.
We boarded the train, kind of slouched in our seats for the quick 10 minute ride, and Evan freaked out a bit when a guy walked by who looked like he worked for the train. Lucky for us, no one checked and we were fine. Sorry Italy!
We made our transfer train just fine and the ride was just a couple of hours to Venice. We've been passing the time on the trains playing games on iphone/ipods, listening to music, trying to order food from the cart (we end up with cookies and really thick or really watered down hot chocolate), and listening to "The Facebook Effect" on Evan's ipod. Muy interesante.
Fun note: The internet cafe in Florence is playing "Little China Girl" by my man, David Bowie. Score for Florence.
Ok, I've run out of time yet again. We're staying with my family in Rome for the next few days so I might have more opportunities to catch up on the blog and stop forgetting things! Hope everyone is doing well!
- A + E
Monday (continued)
So after the boat ride, we went back to the room and chillaxed for a bit. I think that was the day that I sat up from the bed and smacked my head into the shutters that were inside the room. It really hurt and I got a big bump, and discovered blood the next day. Andrea fail. (Evan says that maybe I don't remember which day it is because I hit my head).
Since we were going to leave really early the next day, we realized we should pay for our room that night. We hadn't figured that out before hand so we stopped by the Pizzeria, but it was closed. Then we walked up the street to a house that has massages by Stephanie who we figured was the same person Evan had talked to on the phone (and Rick Steves has referenced her in his book). There was no answer at the door. Then we tried calling Ivo's phone number and got no answer. Instead, we figured we would try to call Stephanie with only two minutes left on our phone card. Very quickly I explained that we needed to pay and she said we could just leave the money and keys in the room (this is a very strange thing given what we're used to at hotels in the US but it's actually kind of nice to have that relaxed feeling about paying). I told her we were going up the street for dinner if someone was around so she said she'd have Michelle (with the little girl) stop by. If not, we could just leave the money like she said. Okey dokey!
So we went to dinner at a fun place (where we almost stayed) at the top of the main road, Il Pirata delle Cinque Terre. Identical twin brothers run the place and the one we talked to was hilarious. He loved to talk up everyone and had lots and lots of stories about Rick Steves, Andy Steves (his son), and something about eating food off of women... (he said it was disrespectful but somehow we had a hard time believing him). The food was delicious. A few minutes later, Michelle, her daughter, and the man we presumed to be Ivo stopped by and collected the money. We just handed her the cash right there at dinner. It was funny but like I said, kind of nice to have that attitude and trust between toursits and locals.
A bit later, two girls came by and he sat them next to us and said "Oh they are from Seattle too. Perfect. You sit with them!". It turned out the girls were from Everett and Marysville. Small world. We talked to them through the dinner and they told us that they both got stung by jellyfish (we were kind of relieved that we didn't go swimming after hearing that). I told them something dumb I had done the first day we were in Vernazza (which maybe from the bump on my head I forgot to write before...).
On the first day, I used the toilet in our bathroom. I closed the lid, and hit what I thought was the flush thing. I heard lots of noise and water sounds but when I opened the lid, the toilet wasn't flushed. Confused, I tried again. It didn't work and I thought it was strange because the flush thing looked like something you'd use to turn on a shower or bathtub. I finally looked up and saw the big button you use for "big flush" or "little flush" (gross, I know). I hit the right one. After seeing water everywhere, it finally came together. The flush thing I had tried to use was for the bidet (look it up if you don't know what it is because I will not be explaining that one). All I can say is good thing I closed the lid.
Back to dinner. We finished dinner up with some limoncello (which unfortunately, we didn't like) and some yummy dessert. We headed back to our room, packed our stuff and set the alarm for 4:45 am.
Tuesday
We got up and out of the room early Tuesday morning. We walked three minutes to the train station. We looked around for the ticket booth, found no automated ones, and realized the staffed ticket booth was also not open. Oh crap. We couldn't get any tickets. The train was coming in 10 minutes (at about 6 am) and we had to catch our connecting train at 7 am in the next town. A few other people were there but we knew they had tickets because in Cinque Terre you get special yellow tickets that you validate at a yellow machine for the date you want to use it. That's how we figured out we made a mistake a few days before. The ticket sale guy had asked if we wanted a one- or two-way ticket. We said one. Should have said two! The night before, the jellyfish-stung Washingtonians told us they had been told that if you're caught on a train without a ticket, it's something like a $50 fine. It's not much if you think about it but the tickets are about $2. We figured we would just get on the train and hope they wouldn't check if we had tickets. On plenty of our train rides, no one ever checked that we had tickets so we just hoped it would be our lucky day.
We boarded the train, kind of slouched in our seats for the quick 10 minute ride, and Evan freaked out a bit when a guy walked by who looked like he worked for the train. Lucky for us, no one checked and we were fine. Sorry Italy!
We made our transfer train just fine and the ride was just a couple of hours to Venice. We've been passing the time on the trains playing games on iphone/ipods, listening to music, trying to order food from the cart (we end up with cookies and really thick or really watered down hot chocolate), and listening to "The Facebook Effect" on Evan's ipod. Muy interesante.
Fun note: The internet cafe in Florence is playing "Little China Girl" by my man, David Bowie. Score for Florence.
Ok, I've run out of time yet again. We're staying with my family in Rome for the next few days so I might have more opportunities to catch up on the blog and stop forgetting things! Hope everyone is doing well!
- A + E
Friday, September 3, 2010
Cinque Terre, Italy (Part 1)
We are in Florence right now and we're taking a break to update the blog. The keyboard can't be switched to English so my bad if there are severe typos or grammatical issues.
Saturday - Sunday
After the creme brulee and "coffee", we went to the train station in Paris. Our coach had 6 passengers and was about the size of the bathroom at the beach house. It was tight. After the train left the station, a train employee came by to take our tickets and passports. We were kind of nervous about that but didn't say anything because he took them from everyone. Eventually, we turned the chairs into beds, which look like the tiny slats for beds I saw in my friend Nick's fraternity in college. You can't sit up (unless you were in the top bunk). We all went to sleep (or at least tried to) and I held my iphone and ipod with a death grip, just because I was a little nervous too about sleeping in a small cabin with strangers (who were completely harmless but sometimes I get a little freaked).
Evan said he didn't sleep through the entire 8-ish hour train ride and at 4 am started panicking about our passports. The trains don't usually announce when you arrive at certain locations so we set the alarm for 5 am (we were to arrive at 6 am). To our sweet surprise, the train guy came by around 5 and gave us our passports. Phew!! That made us feel much better. We got our stuff together and got ready to get out of the train quickly, in case it was going to leave for another stop.
Shortly after, we arrived in Genoa and caught another train to Vernazza, one of the five towns in Cinque Terre. Here we made a mistake that we would realize a couple days later. We bought a train ticket into Vernazza, but not one to leave Vernazza. I'll get back to that later. We got on the train with no problem, arrived within 10 minutes in Vernazza and proceeded to follow the following instructions to get to our hotel from Evan's e-mail:
And when you arrive in Vernazza please go down the stairs from the train station and into the first wine shop on the left side of the street. the shop is named Sotto I'Arco and is about 20 meters form the bottom of the stairs that lead you from the train station and onto the main street of the village. Once there please tell the owners you have a reservation with "Ivo" and they will give us a call to come meet you right away. We do not live on the property where the rooms are located so it is easier to meet you at Sotto I'Arco to personally show you up to the room.
We went into the wine store, and the woman said, no Ivo isn't here, go to the Pizzeria. Which pizzeria? We weren't sure but felt like we had already bugged her. So we kind of wandered into a cafe and asked about the pizzeria. A young man there told us to go next door and to say hi to Ivo for him. At the pizzeria, someone called Ivo on their cell phone, handed the phone to Evan and a young woman on the other end of the phone said, "Hi, I'm Stephanie, Ivo's english-speaking girlfriend". She explained that the room wasn't ready yet because the staff woman had to put down her young daughter but that she would meet us and take our bags. So we waited and were greeted by a young woman and her daughter (about 4 years old). She spoke perfect english and we assumed she was from the US. We walked up 62 steps of steep, steep stairs, with the little girl, Olivia, leading the way while she played with her piano-toy-book. The room was small but very cute. We forgot to take a picture but I'll find one online once we can post all the other pictures.
We left our things in the room so she could finish cleaning and we went down for a nice early morning breakfast pizza. It was about 10 am but we were starving so we ordered a pesto pizza, caprese salad, and sprite. We probably looked a little strange eating pizza so early but it had to happen. And, in defense, one of the chefs sat at a table next to us drinking a beer. So, maybe we weren't so crazy.
For about an hour, we walked around Vernazza, which has one main street made of different sizes of cobblestones. Supposedly, cars aren't allowed in the town but we saw a few (though the streets were so narrow it was amazing they made it through). We walked down to the beautiful beach and watched as the early birds (aka people) played in the water and sun-bathed on the cement and big rocks. The town is adorable and yes, it's verrry romantical (as I like to say so I don't sound too cheesy). After the short walk, we went back to our room and got changed out of our train clothes and took a short nap. Then we went back to the main street to check out the shops. Up on one of the hills is a beautiful tower made of stones so we hiked up there for drinks. I had a huge gin and tonic (I didn't know it would be so big!) and Evan orderd a glass of Cinque Wine which actually tasted like champagne. The bees were all over us so we finished up our drinks and hiked back down (very carefully). We got gelato for dessert and then had dinner. After dinner we realized we had done it all backwards: drinks, dessert, then dinner. Oh well, we do what we want!
We internet cafe'd a bit that night trying to upload pictures from the camera and iphone, but failed. Oh well. We'll try in Rome where we will be staying with some family.
Monday
On Monday morning we found a place that served "American" breakfast with eggs and toast. We justified ordering it since we were going to go on a big hike. I fell in love with a little store on the main road right after breakfast. A man there makes amazing mixed-media art and jewelry. Loved it. We bought some things there (and went back the next day). We also stopped at the little grocery store market and bought some fruit and snacks for the hike.
In Cinque Terre you can hike from each town (or go by train or boat) so we hiked north-west-ish to Monterosso. The hike was beautiful but dangerous in certain parts. But, we saw lots of young kids, older hikers and dogs as well. The scary parts were where the path would get really narrow next to a cliff and you have people walking in both directions. Most people are pretty corteous and let you pass (or vice versa) but it was often hard to find enough room to do so. We stopped a little more than half way to share an apple and fanta. Yum yum. We spoke to a nice couple from the Netherlands and continued on. It was fun walking by big lime trees, grape vines and homes kind of hidden in the hills. But it was hot! We made a wrong turn at one point but luckily we were close to Monterosso and a woman who worked at the ticket booth yelled at us to turn back (we had only been on a wrong path for about a minute).
We made it into Monterosso which is much more like a resort and a bit bigger than Vernazza. We walked through the town and stopped for lunch at a place that was playing Linkin Park and Evanescence. Oh what a flashback to middle school and high school. The pasta was good and restored our energy after the hike. We walked around some more, almost bought a few things, but instead got gelato. I (Andrea) put my feet in the blue water to cool off and we layed on the boardwalk while we waited for the boat to return to Vernazza.
This is a fun part. The boat has a ramp that has wheels on the end that touches the land (where passengers wait to load). I think there was an older tourist group waiting to get on the boat and they squealed when the waves crashed against the dock and got them a bit wet. It was so hot out that you would dry off in about 3 minutes. Anyway, as the boat arrived, the wheel end of the ramp moved all over the place and you would kind of have to chase it down to get on the boat. It was even difficult for Evan and I, so I couldn't imagine it for the others. We sat on the boat watching as people loaded on which included people in high heels (really??!), a woman with an infant in her arms (yikes!!) and many older people that I was terrified to watch. Luckily, everyone loaded on just fine but it was kind of horrifying and funny at the same time. The boat ride was beautiful and Evan did not get sea-sick. Congrats.
Well, we only had an hour at the internet cafe so I'll leave you hanging about the mistake we made at the train station in Genoa.
Hasta luego!
A + E
Saturday - Sunday
After the creme brulee and "coffee", we went to the train station in Paris. Our coach had 6 passengers and was about the size of the bathroom at the beach house. It was tight. After the train left the station, a train employee came by to take our tickets and passports. We were kind of nervous about that but didn't say anything because he took them from everyone. Eventually, we turned the chairs into beds, which look like the tiny slats for beds I saw in my friend Nick's fraternity in college. You can't sit up (unless you were in the top bunk). We all went to sleep (or at least tried to) and I held my iphone and ipod with a death grip, just because I was a little nervous too about sleeping in a small cabin with strangers (who were completely harmless but sometimes I get a little freaked).
Evan said he didn't sleep through the entire 8-ish hour train ride and at 4 am started panicking about our passports. The trains don't usually announce when you arrive at certain locations so we set the alarm for 5 am (we were to arrive at 6 am). To our sweet surprise, the train guy came by around 5 and gave us our passports. Phew!! That made us feel much better. We got our stuff together and got ready to get out of the train quickly, in case it was going to leave for another stop.
Shortly after, we arrived in Genoa and caught another train to Vernazza, one of the five towns in Cinque Terre. Here we made a mistake that we would realize a couple days later. We bought a train ticket into Vernazza, but not one to leave Vernazza. I'll get back to that later. We got on the train with no problem, arrived within 10 minutes in Vernazza and proceeded to follow the following instructions to get to our hotel from Evan's e-mail:
And when you arrive in Vernazza please go down the stairs from the train station and into the first wine shop on the left side of the street. the shop is named Sotto I'Arco and is about 20 meters form the bottom of the stairs that lead you from the train station and onto the main street of the village. Once there please tell the owners you have a reservation with "Ivo" and they will give us a call to come meet you right away. We do not live on the property where the rooms are located so it is easier to meet you at Sotto I'Arco to personally show you up to the room.
We went into the wine store, and the woman said, no Ivo isn't here, go to the Pizzeria. Which pizzeria? We weren't sure but felt like we had already bugged her. So we kind of wandered into a cafe and asked about the pizzeria. A young man there told us to go next door and to say hi to Ivo for him. At the pizzeria, someone called Ivo on their cell phone, handed the phone to Evan and a young woman on the other end of the phone said, "Hi, I'm Stephanie, Ivo's english-speaking girlfriend". She explained that the room wasn't ready yet because the staff woman had to put down her young daughter but that she would meet us and take our bags. So we waited and were greeted by a young woman and her daughter (about 4 years old). She spoke perfect english and we assumed she was from the US. We walked up 62 steps of steep, steep stairs, with the little girl, Olivia, leading the way while she played with her piano-toy-book. The room was small but very cute. We forgot to take a picture but I'll find one online once we can post all the other pictures.
We left our things in the room so she could finish cleaning and we went down for a nice early morning breakfast pizza. It was about 10 am but we were starving so we ordered a pesto pizza, caprese salad, and sprite. We probably looked a little strange eating pizza so early but it had to happen. And, in defense, one of the chefs sat at a table next to us drinking a beer. So, maybe we weren't so crazy.
For about an hour, we walked around Vernazza, which has one main street made of different sizes of cobblestones. Supposedly, cars aren't allowed in the town but we saw a few (though the streets were so narrow it was amazing they made it through). We walked down to the beautiful beach and watched as the early birds (aka people) played in the water and sun-bathed on the cement and big rocks. The town is adorable and yes, it's verrry romantical (as I like to say so I don't sound too cheesy). After the short walk, we went back to our room and got changed out of our train clothes and took a short nap. Then we went back to the main street to check out the shops. Up on one of the hills is a beautiful tower made of stones so we hiked up there for drinks. I had a huge gin and tonic (I didn't know it would be so big!) and Evan orderd a glass of Cinque Wine which actually tasted like champagne. The bees were all over us so we finished up our drinks and hiked back down (very carefully). We got gelato for dessert and then had dinner. After dinner we realized we had done it all backwards: drinks, dessert, then dinner. Oh well, we do what we want!
We internet cafe'd a bit that night trying to upload pictures from the camera and iphone, but failed. Oh well. We'll try in Rome where we will be staying with some family.
Monday
On Monday morning we found a place that served "American" breakfast with eggs and toast. We justified ordering it since we were going to go on a big hike. I fell in love with a little store on the main road right after breakfast. A man there makes amazing mixed-media art and jewelry. Loved it. We bought some things there (and went back the next day). We also stopped at the little grocery store market and bought some fruit and snacks for the hike.
In Cinque Terre you can hike from each town (or go by train or boat) so we hiked north-west-ish to Monterosso. The hike was beautiful but dangerous in certain parts. But, we saw lots of young kids, older hikers and dogs as well. The scary parts were where the path would get really narrow next to a cliff and you have people walking in both directions. Most people are pretty corteous and let you pass (or vice versa) but it was often hard to find enough room to do so. We stopped a little more than half way to share an apple and fanta. Yum yum. We spoke to a nice couple from the Netherlands and continued on. It was fun walking by big lime trees, grape vines and homes kind of hidden in the hills. But it was hot! We made a wrong turn at one point but luckily we were close to Monterosso and a woman who worked at the ticket booth yelled at us to turn back (we had only been on a wrong path for about a minute).
We made it into Monterosso which is much more like a resort and a bit bigger than Vernazza. We walked through the town and stopped for lunch at a place that was playing Linkin Park and Evanescence. Oh what a flashback to middle school and high school. The pasta was good and restored our energy after the hike. We walked around some more, almost bought a few things, but instead got gelato. I (Andrea) put my feet in the blue water to cool off and we layed on the boardwalk while we waited for the boat to return to Vernazza.
This is a fun part. The boat has a ramp that has wheels on the end that touches the land (where passengers wait to load). I think there was an older tourist group waiting to get on the boat and they squealed when the waves crashed against the dock and got them a bit wet. It was so hot out that you would dry off in about 3 minutes. Anyway, as the boat arrived, the wheel end of the ramp moved all over the place and you would kind of have to chase it down to get on the boat. It was even difficult for Evan and I, so I couldn't imagine it for the others. We sat on the boat watching as people loaded on which included people in high heels (really??!), a woman with an infant in her arms (yikes!!) and many older people that I was terrified to watch. Luckily, everyone loaded on just fine but it was kind of horrifying and funny at the same time. The boat ride was beautiful and Evan did not get sea-sick. Congrats.
Well, we only had an hour at the internet cafe so I'll leave you hanging about the mistake we made at the train station in Genoa.
Hasta luego!
A + E
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Pre-Wedding Injuries: A Schrockenberger-Westenrock Special!
Before I commit to writing another long blog post, for your entertainment, here are some Pre-Wedding Injuries.
Pre-Wedding Injuries
No, no one (that we know of) fell down one the dance floor or ate too many cupcakes but a few of us managed to work so hard on getting the wedding together that we actually got hurt. Here are the tales of the injured, in order of severity: Mark, Evan, Andrea and Cathy.
Mark (Andrea's dad)
My dad was outside of the house probably working on the beautiful ceremony sign and managed to step on a rake, just like they do in the movies. The rake hit him right on his head and bent his glasses. Lesson learned: Lean the rakes on the garage just like mom told you.
Evan (former groom)
In a heroic effort to make a million more puffs, Evan cut so many corners off the pieces of tissue paper that he made his thumb go numb a week before the wedding. It's still numb. Lesson learned: Friskars scissors really aren't worth the 75 cents you buy them for at the grocery store. Buy the good scissors (or use the fancy fabric scissors that mom says you can't touch!).
Andrea (former bride)
Two nights before the wedding, in more puff madness, Evan was running around the house while Judith, Andrea's mom, chased him (don't ask why). In his loop of running, Evan stepped directly on my recently manicured big toe-nail. It hurt. Really hurt. But the worse part? Warning: This part is gross. A piece of my toe-nail got ripped off!! Oh the pedicure! Given that I was hoping that the pedicure would last until the wedding, I had to get one again the next day. And of course, I tortured Evan with guilt about it. Lesson learned: Always wear shoes. Oh no, that's not it. Don't run in the house (again, like mom said!)
Cathy (Evan's mom)
On the same night as the toe-nail incident, Cathy took a break from the puffs and started pruning some plants in her yard fairly late in the evening. Warning: This part includes blood. The pruning shears slipped and she cut herself on the hand-thumb area on the top of her hand. Yikes! By second-hand (no pun intended) accounts, blood was shooting everywhere and a trip to the ER ensued. She got two stitches (ouch!) and quite a hefty bandage. Luckily, she is ok but it sure was a night for injuries! Lesson learned: Ask Evan to cut the hedges since his thumb is numb and he probably wouldn't feel it if he cut himself.
Look for a full blog post soon with treacherous hikes in Cinque Terre and a mirror decorated with fortune cookie-scrunchies in our Venice hotel.
Ciao!
Andrea and Evan
Pre-Wedding Injuries
No, no one (that we know of) fell down one the dance floor or ate too many cupcakes but a few of us managed to work so hard on getting the wedding together that we actually got hurt. Here are the tales of the injured, in order of severity: Mark, Evan, Andrea and Cathy.
Mark (Andrea's dad)
My dad was outside of the house probably working on the beautiful ceremony sign and managed to step on a rake, just like they do in the movies. The rake hit him right on his head and bent his glasses. Lesson learned: Lean the rakes on the garage just like mom told you.
Evan (former groom)
In a heroic effort to make a million more puffs, Evan cut so many corners off the pieces of tissue paper that he made his thumb go numb a week before the wedding. It's still numb. Lesson learned: Friskars scissors really aren't worth the 75 cents you buy them for at the grocery store. Buy the good scissors (or use the fancy fabric scissors that mom says you can't touch!).
Andrea (former bride)
Two nights before the wedding, in more puff madness, Evan was running around the house while Judith, Andrea's mom, chased him (don't ask why). In his loop of running, Evan stepped directly on my recently manicured big toe-nail. It hurt. Really hurt. But the worse part? Warning: This part is gross. A piece of my toe-nail got ripped off!! Oh the pedicure! Given that I was hoping that the pedicure would last until the wedding, I had to get one again the next day. And of course, I tortured Evan with guilt about it. Lesson learned: Always wear shoes. Oh no, that's not it. Don't run in the house (again, like mom said!)
Cathy (Evan's mom)
On the same night as the toe-nail incident, Cathy took a break from the puffs and started pruning some plants in her yard fairly late in the evening. Warning: This part includes blood. The pruning shears slipped and she cut herself on the hand-thumb area on the top of her hand. Yikes! By second-hand (no pun intended) accounts, blood was shooting everywhere and a trip to the ER ensued. She got two stitches (ouch!) and quite a hefty bandage. Luckily, she is ok but it sure was a night for injuries! Lesson learned: Ask Evan to cut the hedges since his thumb is numb and he probably wouldn't feel it if he cut himself.
Look for a full blog post soon with treacherous hikes in Cinque Terre and a mirror decorated with fortune cookie-scrunchies in our Venice hotel.
Ciao!
Andrea and Evan
Saturday, August 28, 2010
The Not-So-Condensed Version of the First 4 Days
Hi again!
Well before we had just a few minutes so I jotted down a few highlights. Here's the more detailed version for those with more time to read.
The Wedding: No Rain!, Beautiful, Fun Fun Fun!
We couldn't have wished for a better day. Particularly because the rain in the morning was teasing us and we were so lucky that it cleared up in the afternoon. The ceremony, music, food, entertainment, pictures, guests, and everything was incredible. And, we had so much fun! I (Andrea) never thought I could feel so relaxed at my own wedding but it was thanks to everyone's hard work the whole day. Thank you again! As we get pictures, we'll post them.
And for those of you who have been to the beach house... yes... we DID walk down the hill at night in our wedding clothes.
1 Bride + 1 Wedding Gown + 1 Groom + 1 Suit + 2 Headlamps = Andrea and Evan as husband and wife.
Flying: NYC, Zombies, Getting in Trouble at the Library, 28 Dresses
On Monday we packed... packed... and packed... and left the dirty dishes in the sink (as usual). Evan's parents, Cathy and George, drove us kiddos to Vancouver, Canada for our flight. A man was nice enough to switch seats so we could sit together. We pulled the "honeymoon" card for that one. The red-eye flight flew us into NYC at 7AM on Tuesday. Since we knew we needed to start getting used to the time change, we trekked it out on the subway to downtown and wandered around like zombies all day. We tried to take a sneaky nap at the library but the guard told us to wake up. We felt kind of like hobos in that situation... We did catch a glimpse of the Today Show, stopped at Nintendo World, and ate breakfast in Central Park.
We took another overnight flight to Paris during which Evan took sleeping pills and I watched about 1/3 of 28 Dresses. The only part I liked was that they sang Benny and the Jets by Elton John.
Paris
Wednesday: Bird droppings (not edible)
When we arrived in Paris, we took the subway to our hotel in the Latin Quarter, near Notre Dam. It's a cute area with lots of little shops and a ton of restaurants. We dropped off our luggage and walked around the area. For breakfast, we stopped at a bakery around the corner and ordered croissants with chocolate chips, orange juice, and hot chocolate. While we were sitting outside, a bird crapped on Evan's hoodie. Oh it was hiiiiilarious. The little birds sit above the seating area waiting for bread droppings. Pun intended!! We had laundry to do anyway....
We went inside Notre Dam, which is beautiful. It's strange though because many people were in there praying, and they hold services even when tourists are allowed inside. When we were able to check-in to the hotel, we took a nap because we still felt like zombies. At night we went out to eat at a restaurant a few blocks from the hotel.
Thursday: Rain Rain Go Away, Ok Thanks!
On Thursday morning we went to the same bakery for breakfast. We took the subway to Versailles. It is an incredibly ornate and huge place that impressed both of us once we got there. (Though the Louvre seemed so much bigger...). We walked through most of the main building and saw beautiful pieces of art, furniture, gorgeous chandeliers, preserved bed chambers, and much more. The gardens were beautiful with flowers you could smell from far away and beautifully manicured bushes and hedges.
After Versailles, we rode the subway to the Orsay Museum. There we saw artwork from Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, and Andrea's favorite: Degas. The museum looks small but has a lot of artwork and we were there for a few hours. After the museum, it was of course... nap time. I never though jet lag would be so difficult but just about every day around 2 PM, I crash.
After nap time (we feel like toddlers talking about it), we rode the subway to the Eifel Tower. While we were eating dinner, it started raining. Great, we had no umbrellas. Oh wait, remember the wedding? Just when we finished eating, the rain stopped! Ta Da! Since it was at night, there were significantly less people there than during the day. We walked up the stairs to the first and second floors. We saved cash and time by not riding the elevator. Well, and we had quite a workout too! The view was beautiful and we got some nice pictures of the river. We made it down just in time for the hourly show where they light up the Eifel Tower. It looks amazing lit up against the dark night sky. Awww....
Evan wanted a trinket so he awkwardly bought a little Eifel Tower from a street vendor. We're pretty sure it will either disintegrate or break in half within a week. But for a few bucks, it's worth it... ?
Friday: Luuuuurve, Forgot to Wake Up...
On Friday we managed to get confused and it took us a while to get on the hop-on, hop-off bus. We rode it to the Rodin Museum which has a collected of Rodin sculptures as well as "The Thinker". The building is beautiful and has floors that creak when you walk - I love that.
After the Rodin Museum, we hopped on (hehehe) the hop-oh, hop-off bus to the Louvre. I know you say "Luuuve" but I always want to say "Luuuurrrve" like "Oh look, they're in luuuuurve". Anywhoo, the Lourve is huge-freaking-mungous! We looked for the Mona Lisa which took us quite a while even following the signs they post. The Mona Lisa looked exactly like it's always looked. And yes, it's tiny. But, it was something we had to see since we were there. We didn't really follow a path but instead just wandered around and managed to run into the Egyptian section while looking for the bathrooms. Which, by the way, had one stall for women, one for men, in an entire WING of the Louvre! I guess they were saving space for all that artwork! We also saw Venus and the wing where Napoleon lived. It's ridiculously ornate times a million. I've never seen anything like it. Then, you see his chair. And it looks like it was made for a toddler (yes... one who likes to take naps).
We went back to the hotel for a nap that turned into bedtime... oops... We just couldn't wake up! We even skipped dinner which is pretty unusual for both of us.
Saturday: Coffee?
On Saturday we woke up starving (well, not any more than usual, but still...). We went back to the yummy bakery (now Evan's favorite given his first experience there) and a girl who spoke french had to help us order the same thing we've ordered everyday. Throughout the first few days we realized how annoying tourists can be (which includes ourselves, I'm sure). I won't rant on it much but many tourists are very fussy, think everyone should speak english (or whatever their native language is), and are very loud. We've tried to speak french which sometimes comes out as me speaking spanish... "Si" does not equal "Oui".
You might have read the short and sweet version of our blog post which I wrote on Saturday morning. After the internet cafe, we "hopped-on" and rode the bus to Arch De Triumph. For those loving high fashion, we ate across the street from the Louis Vuitton flagship store. We also rode by Chanel, Dior, and some other fancy pants stores. We rode the bus again to the Moulin Rouge. It's neat but better in the movie. And it's in an.... adult... section of Paris.
I just had some delish creme brule. And Evan... well he tried to order some fancy coffee. Instead, what came out was a pot of hot water, an empty cup, a piece of chocolate, and two wrapped sugar cubes (which he thought was cream). He was about 2 seconds away from putting the chocolate in the cup and pouring hot water over it when the waitress brought a box of tea bags to chose from. Apparently, he ordered tea... with an after dinner chocolate. I enjoyed my deliciously huge creme brule while Evan drank his "coffee".
Now we are headed to Cinque Terre, Italy. We'll update soon! Hope everyone's well!
- Andrea and Evan (the nappers)
Well before we had just a few minutes so I jotted down a few highlights. Here's the more detailed version for those with more time to read.
The Wedding: No Rain!, Beautiful, Fun Fun Fun!
We couldn't have wished for a better day. Particularly because the rain in the morning was teasing us and we were so lucky that it cleared up in the afternoon. The ceremony, music, food, entertainment, pictures, guests, and everything was incredible. And, we had so much fun! I (Andrea) never thought I could feel so relaxed at my own wedding but it was thanks to everyone's hard work the whole day. Thank you again! As we get pictures, we'll post them.
And for those of you who have been to the beach house... yes... we DID walk down the hill at night in our wedding clothes.
1 Bride + 1 Wedding Gown + 1 Groom + 1 Suit + 2 Headlamps = Andrea and Evan as husband and wife.
Flying: NYC, Zombies, Getting in Trouble at the Library, 28 Dresses
On Monday we packed... packed... and packed... and left the dirty dishes in the sink (as usual). Evan's parents, Cathy and George, drove us kiddos to Vancouver, Canada for our flight. A man was nice enough to switch seats so we could sit together. We pulled the "honeymoon" card for that one. The red-eye flight flew us into NYC at 7AM on Tuesday. Since we knew we needed to start getting used to the time change, we trekked it out on the subway to downtown and wandered around like zombies all day. We tried to take a sneaky nap at the library but the guard told us to wake up. We felt kind of like hobos in that situation... We did catch a glimpse of the Today Show, stopped at Nintendo World, and ate breakfast in Central Park.
We took another overnight flight to Paris during which Evan took sleeping pills and I watched about 1/3 of 28 Dresses. The only part I liked was that they sang Benny and the Jets by Elton John.
Paris
Wednesday: Bird droppings (not edible)
When we arrived in Paris, we took the subway to our hotel in the Latin Quarter, near Notre Dam. It's a cute area with lots of little shops and a ton of restaurants. We dropped off our luggage and walked around the area. For breakfast, we stopped at a bakery around the corner and ordered croissants with chocolate chips, orange juice, and hot chocolate. While we were sitting outside, a bird crapped on Evan's hoodie. Oh it was hiiiiilarious. The little birds sit above the seating area waiting for bread droppings. Pun intended!! We had laundry to do anyway....
We went inside Notre Dam, which is beautiful. It's strange though because many people were in there praying, and they hold services even when tourists are allowed inside. When we were able to check-in to the hotel, we took a nap because we still felt like zombies. At night we went out to eat at a restaurant a few blocks from the hotel.
Thursday: Rain Rain Go Away, Ok Thanks!
On Thursday morning we went to the same bakery for breakfast. We took the subway to Versailles. It is an incredibly ornate and huge place that impressed both of us once we got there. (Though the Louvre seemed so much bigger...). We walked through most of the main building and saw beautiful pieces of art, furniture, gorgeous chandeliers, preserved bed chambers, and much more. The gardens were beautiful with flowers you could smell from far away and beautifully manicured bushes and hedges.
After Versailles, we rode the subway to the Orsay Museum. There we saw artwork from Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, and Andrea's favorite: Degas. The museum looks small but has a lot of artwork and we were there for a few hours. After the museum, it was of course... nap time. I never though jet lag would be so difficult but just about every day around 2 PM, I crash.
After nap time (we feel like toddlers talking about it), we rode the subway to the Eifel Tower. While we were eating dinner, it started raining. Great, we had no umbrellas. Oh wait, remember the wedding? Just when we finished eating, the rain stopped! Ta Da! Since it was at night, there were significantly less people there than during the day. We walked up the stairs to the first and second floors. We saved cash and time by not riding the elevator. Well, and we had quite a workout too! The view was beautiful and we got some nice pictures of the river. We made it down just in time for the hourly show where they light up the Eifel Tower. It looks amazing lit up against the dark night sky. Awww....
Evan wanted a trinket so he awkwardly bought a little Eifel Tower from a street vendor. We're pretty sure it will either disintegrate or break in half within a week. But for a few bucks, it's worth it... ?
Friday: Luuuuurve, Forgot to Wake Up...
On Friday we managed to get confused and it took us a while to get on the hop-on, hop-off bus. We rode it to the Rodin Museum which has a collected of Rodin sculptures as well as "The Thinker". The building is beautiful and has floors that creak when you walk - I love that.
After the Rodin Museum, we hopped on (hehehe) the hop-oh, hop-off bus to the Louvre. I know you say "Luuuve" but I always want to say "Luuuurrrve" like "Oh look, they're in luuuuurve". Anywhoo, the Lourve is huge-freaking-mungous! We looked for the Mona Lisa which took us quite a while even following the signs they post. The Mona Lisa looked exactly like it's always looked. And yes, it's tiny. But, it was something we had to see since we were there. We didn't really follow a path but instead just wandered around and managed to run into the Egyptian section while looking for the bathrooms. Which, by the way, had one stall for women, one for men, in an entire WING of the Louvre! I guess they were saving space for all that artwork! We also saw Venus and the wing where Napoleon lived. It's ridiculously ornate times a million. I've never seen anything like it. Then, you see his chair. And it looks like it was made for a toddler (yes... one who likes to take naps).
We went back to the hotel for a nap that turned into bedtime... oops... We just couldn't wake up! We even skipped dinner which is pretty unusual for both of us.
Saturday: Coffee?
On Saturday we woke up starving (well, not any more than usual, but still...). We went back to the yummy bakery (now Evan's favorite given his first experience there) and a girl who spoke french had to help us order the same thing we've ordered everyday. Throughout the first few days we realized how annoying tourists can be (which includes ourselves, I'm sure). I won't rant on it much but many tourists are very fussy, think everyone should speak english (or whatever their native language is), and are very loud. We've tried to speak french which sometimes comes out as me speaking spanish... "Si" does not equal "Oui".
You might have read the short and sweet version of our blog post which I wrote on Saturday morning. After the internet cafe, we "hopped-on" and rode the bus to Arch De Triumph. For those loving high fashion, we ate across the street from the Louis Vuitton flagship store. We also rode by Chanel, Dior, and some other fancy pants stores. We rode the bus again to the Moulin Rouge. It's neat but better in the movie. And it's in an.... adult... section of Paris.
I just had some delish creme brule. And Evan... well he tried to order some fancy coffee. Instead, what came out was a pot of hot water, an empty cup, a piece of chocolate, and two wrapped sugar cubes (which he thought was cream). He was about 2 seconds away from putting the chocolate in the cup and pouring hot water over it when the waitress brought a box of tea bags to chose from. Apparently, he ordered tea... with an after dinner chocolate. I enjoyed my deliciously huge creme brule while Evan drank his "coffee".
Now we are headed to Cinque Terre, Italy. We'll update soon! Hope everyone's well!
- Andrea and Evan (the nappers)
Paris (condensed)
The wedding: unforgetable, and NO RAIN! Thanks to everyone for making it wonderful and so much fun. We can't wait to see all the pictures!
Warning: My apologies for any spelling errors as the computer thinks I'm trying to type in French.
We drove up to Vancouver, flew in to NYC, walked around NYC like zombies for 7 hours (got in trouble for sleeping at the library... woops), and arrived in Paris at 7 AM on Wednesday (Tuesday night for you all at home).
Our hotel is a cute little place in the Latin Quarter near Notre Dam.
Wednesday: Notre Dam,
Thursday: Versailles, Museum Orsay, Eifel Tower at Night.
Friday: Musee Rodin, Louvre.
I'm getting kicked off the computer! Got to go! Will update soon with pictures!
Love to everyone!
- Andrea and Evan
Warning: My apologies for any spelling errors as the computer thinks I'm trying to type in French.
We drove up to Vancouver, flew in to NYC, walked around NYC like zombies for 7 hours (got in trouble for sleeping at the library... woops), and arrived in Paris at 7 AM on Wednesday (Tuesday night for you all at home).
Our hotel is a cute little place in the Latin Quarter near Notre Dam.
Wednesday: Notre Dam,
Thursday: Versailles, Museum Orsay, Eifel Tower at Night.
Friday: Musee Rodin, Louvre.
I'm getting kicked off the computer! Got to go! Will update soon with pictures!
Love to everyone!
- Andrea and Evan
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