Rocks and Ruins

Rome was definitely one of my favourite parts of the trip, even though it was our last stop before heading back to London and home. There arn’t really any words to describe what it feels like to be standing in front of the Colosseum, or to walk into St Peters, or to see the ruins of the Forum. Just the fact that wherever you walk there is probably thousands of years of history beneath you feet that still hasn’t been uncovered is a ridiculous amount to grasp. Needless to say I kind of felt like I was in a dreamland while we were walking around, just trying to realize where I was for four days.

Oh yeah, and there are ruins everywhere. You can just chill on them.

We were able to walk everywhere in Rome which was really nice, and luckily the weather was on our side yet again. The first day we explored as usual - the first stop being the Colosseum. (:

After that we wandered over to the Forum, and when I saw the ruins I was just so overwhelmed already that I started crying. I was seeing stuff that i had studied for years and all of the sudden it was right in front of me. Despite trying to realize where I was for the whole trip, it still feels surreal.

We also went to the Pantheon (!!!) and to Trevi Fountain and Piazza Navona.

The first full day we went to line up to get into the Colosseum - luckily we got there early, so not much of a wait at all. Again, very surreal to be standing in there. Words or pictures don’t so this place justice, everyone needs to go there at some point… but here’s some pictures anyway. (:

We had a bit of magic morning light, which made for some amazing photos.

And here’s me showing off my Joaquin Phoenix impression:

And then we had a crazy thought that it would be a good idea to go to the Vatican since we were done the Colosseum relatively early. So we grabbed some lunch and walked to the Vatican, also trying to find a NORMAL bank machine along the way… we were super confused because they kept telling us we were taking cash “advances” with our debit cards… we chanced it and luckily it must have just been a bad translation because it was a normal withdrawal not a cash advance… sigh.

Anyways we got to the Vatican and I stared at St Peters for awhile before we walked all the way around to get to the museum. I was dreading at least a few hours wait to get in, but we were both astonished (yep, astonished) to see absolutely NO line at the entrance. It was crazy because I’ve heard its one of the longest lines ever.

So that was good. We went through security and they made Clayton check in his backpack (even though hundreds of other people had backpacks…) and we made our way in to the Museum. I was still sick at this point so I was already tired just from getting there, so we sat in the cafeteria there for awhile before starting the tour.

Long story (kind of) short, the reason there was no line outside is that they have apparently stopped staggering the  amount of people that they let inside. So. There was a LOT of people inside. Like, people soup. You couldn’t really stop to look at anything because you just had to keep moving so you wouldn’t be run over by all the @#$%ing tour groups behind you.

I hate tour groups… I hate them so much.

Sad to say it kind of ruined the museum and the Sistine Chapel especially. It’s supposed to be one of the holiest places in the world, and you walk in and there is a ton of people, all the tour guides are shouting into their microphones so their group can hear them, and EVERYONE is taking pictures. There was one guard half ass shouting at people to not take pictures, but he hardly cared. So we tried to find a somewhat empty space to stare up at the ceiling, and I tried to make the most of it but honestly I was pretty disappointed. It was still an amazing thing to see though, despite the atmosphere.

So after that we found ourselves outside of the museum and at the entrance of St Peters. There was no line for this either somehow, so we hopped inside. Little did we know it was about to close (along with the museum) so we only got to staty in there for about 15 minutes… but since they were clearing people out, we got some amazing pictures with no people in them. (:

After we left the basilica, we realized that there was no way to get back in to the museum from that side to get Clayton’s backpack. So we had to walk ALL the way back around (it takes about 15-20 minutes, and we were practically jogging) to get to the entrance. We got there and…

it was closed. With a crazy intense bolted door. Cue a bit of panic - our hotel keys + probably some other important things we in the backpack. So we hastily went to the exit of the museum on that side where they were still letting people out, and Clayton explained that his backpack was still inside and showed the guard his ticket… the guard responded with “It’s your lucky day…” and let him inside THANK GOD. haha. 

So it was a little bit of a rushed/stressful visit to the Vatican. It didn’t help that I was still sick. We definitely didn’t see everything we wanted to, but just another reason to go back. (: 

Some more magic light at Castel Saint Angelo on the way back from the Vatican. (:

The second full day we went to the Spanish Steps and took it pretty easy, just a lot of exploring and finding little shops and restaurants. The third day we had planned to do the Forum, but it rained for a few straight hours in the morning Vancouver style, and the city completely shut down. The metro was flooded, the Colosseum and the Forum were both closed, and there were mudslides everywhere. Needless to say they are not prepared to handle any sort of rain haha. So we did our own tour around the outside of the Forum, and still managed to see most of it.

That night we also took one last walk around the Colosseum for some pictures and to say goodbye. ):

ilu Colosseum.

And as were were walking back towards the Forum to find some dinner, we were greeted with the beginnings of an amazing sunset. Took some pictures and Clayton said “Should we go or do you think it’s going to get more instense?” and almost right as he said that, it got super intense. So we grabbed a spot to stand along the railing - there was a giant puddle behind us that no one else dared to go around, so we got our own little alcove for the show.

What a send off. I couldn’t have asked for anything nicer.

Add Some Pasta to that Wine

The thing I liked the most about Florence was the fact that it is such a laid back city in comparison to Paris and London. I love the hustle and bustle of both those cities, but it was nice to take it easy in Florence and not worry about being run over by the stampede of people behind you.

We had pasta every meal, naturally. And I never got sick of it! Spaghetti bolognese and gnocchi and penne and yum….

Our hotel was about 2 blocks away from the Duomo. Needless to say, it was lovely waking to the sound of it’s bells every morning. What an amazing cathedral.

The central part of Florence is rather small, so we really got a chance to walk everywhere, not worry about getting places and enjoy the feel of the city. The first day we just explored - I think the view of the Ponte Vecchio was my favourite.

The second day we got up at a decent hour and went to the Uffizi Gallery, which was under a lot of restoration but luckily we were able to see all of the main attractions. I still wasn’t impressed by the chick riding in the clam (I really dont like that painting…) but we saw a ton of other (mostly religious) paintings, including a handful of da Vinci’s. (: Afterwards we walked to the top of a high point in Florence that gave you a crazy amazing view of the entire city. And it was a lovely day:

The third day we got up to go to the Duomo and luckily only had to wait about 15 minutes in line out in the freezing wind. Florence was COLD! The sun was shining the entire time, but the wind there is constant. Anyways the interior of the Duomo was just as lovely as the exterior. We didn’t get to go right under the dome, but we went down into the crypt and saw a lot of the original foundation of the church, which was really neat.

The third day we went to an old palace that is still kickin, and checked out the amaaaazing gardens. They were huge! We walked almost the entire thing I think. I was really glad that we did this because when we went to the very back we got a crazy view of the Tuscan countryside. It is as beautiful as they say. (:

At this point I had gotten sick (thanks to our terrible hotel… our room smelled of sewage and was literally a foot from the front door and the reception, I shouldn’t need to say more) so we took it easy for our last day in Florence and walked around exploring lots of little shops and the markets.

I really enjoyed the city, it was a lovely introduction to Italy - great food and the people were a lot nicer than they were in France, haha. I was in awe with all of the old architecture and history, but this was nothing compared to our next stop in Rome!

Sunshine and More Wine

We are already enjoying our last full day of our trip ): and I’ve fallen badly behind on our updates! So without further adieu, here is our little getaway to Villefranche-sur-Mer, a little town just outside of Nice in southern France. Here is where we finally found some lovely sunshine and a little extension of summer. (:

The view from our patio - speaks for itself. (: We also had a Pacific Ocean temperature pool in the hotel, which Clayton braved (kind of).

There wasn’t much sightseeing to do here, just lots of little streets and shops to explore. So not too much to say here - we did a lot of wandering, eating delicious seaside food at the local restaurants, and drinking more wine. (:

There were probably 10 half sunken boats around the marina…

Troll face

It was the perfect relaxation spot for sure. Which is good because we had a hell of a trip to Genova, an overnight stop on our way to Florence. We got up nice and early in Villefranche to get on our train to Ventmilla and then transfer to Genova. On the transfer train there were multiple announcements in Italian that we obviously couldn’t understand, and they just kept repeating and repeating… luckily we had a lady in our cabin who told us if we were going to Genova that there were crazy protests that were preventing any trains from arriving or departing at the station. Awesome. So we had to get off at the stop in this random town that was almost an hour away from Genova, and of course there were no buses or other trains into the city. We ended up having to take a €120 cab ride. So painful… it was almost double our hotel price. ):

But at least we got a chance to experience crazy italian cab driving? I think we were going 140km on the winding highway there haha.

Luckily there were no problems the next day on our trip in to beautiful Florence!

Wine and Cheese… and More Wine

J’adore Paris!

We arrived in Paris via the chunnel from London, about a 3 hour trip that I pretty much slept through. It was dark so… not really much to see. :P

The trip to our apartment in Montmartre was quite painless, thanks to the ease of the Paris metro system, and our place (courtesy of my aunt Cheryl, who outdid herself once again) was about a block or two away from a metro station. I fell in love with it as soon as we walked in the door.

Pretty nice place to stay in - I felt incredibly spoiled the whole time we were here.

This first day we just wandered down to central Paris - took in the sights of the Louvre and walked along the Siene to see the Notre Dame and the Eiffel Tower in the distance. Here’s an impromptu shot I took that looks like it was on a professional photo shoot:

I didnt even edit this… just saying.

Our first full day we headed straight for the Louvre. I felt like a giddy 12 year old going to see Justin Bieber. Yes, I was that excited.

We got there and the line-up just to GET IN the building was a 2 hour wait… so we used some great advice from Clayton’s mom and got ourselves a Paris Museum Pass at L’Arts Decoratifs, a nearby museum literally in the same building as the Louvre that had no lineups at all. That helped us bypass the entire 2 hour line, and once we were in the Louvre, we didn’t have to line up for any tickets or anything. Paris win!

I took waaaay too many photos inside. It was pretty busy, especially around the Mona Lisa (surprise) but I don’t need to post my blurry photos of it because you all know what it looks like. Despite all the people we still got right up to it, and saw tons of my other favourite paintings. 

Here’s just some randoms

Twins?

And Diane/Deb, this one is for you:

Ewww feet.

We were only in the Louvre for 3-4 hours and we barely saw anything. When people tell you how big it is, it is BIG. Huge. I still cant fathom how much stuff was on display, and that is probably a ridiculously small amount compared to everything that they have in storage. It was crazy… for example in the Egypt wing (seriously, so. much. Egypt stuff) they just had sarcophaguses piled in a dark corner like they were to go out at a garage sale. I still can’t get over that. And just really really (really) old busts or sculptures in the hallway to the bathrooms. I could live in the Louvre and still not see everything they have.

So needless to say it was hard to leave. But all the more reason to go back. (:

The second day was DISNEYLAND PARIS!!!

This is pretty self-explanitory as to how much fun it was. <3 I was pleasantly surprised - to be honest I wasn’t expecting it to be anywhere close to the California park but parts of it were almost better. It wasn’t as big but it filled up an entire day getting to most of it.

Love this mouse <3

And look who snuck up on us:

He literally snuck up on us haha. We were looking at a map trying to figure out where to go next, and Clayton looks up and starts laughing and says “Uh, Jack Sparrow is behind you” and I was like “WHAT” and I turned around and just barely saw him jump behind a column beside us. Then he slowly came out around the other side with the whole Jack Sparrow walk and was like “Bonjour.” FRENCH JACK SPARROW IS WEIRD! 

We ended the day just wandering around the park and buying things. It was super fun.

That night we also had a really great dinner at a restaurant by our apartment that we noticed was constantly full with locals, so we thought we’d give it a try. I had beef borgignon, and Clayton had yummy penne!

The last full day in Paris was really busy. We had sights to see! Got up at a decent hour and headed over to the Notre Dame. There was a Saturday mass being held to we unfortunately couldn’t go to the very back of the cathedral, but it was amazing nonetheless. Very busy again, but it was kind of neat going inside while a mass was being held.

Then we walked the Seine all the way to the Louvre to grab some lunch while we walked some more down the Champs d’Elysses to the Arc de Triomphe. We used our Paris Museum passes here and went to the top for free :D 

After the Arc we walked even more over to the Eiffel Tower! Unfortunately our Museum Passes did not grant us access to the top of this one, and there was a 2-3 hour wait for both the lift and the stairs. We opted out of waiting and just enjoyed some people watching in the gardens out front.

and being crazy:

Jumping pictures are the best thing if you don’t want to end up with the same pose in every shot of you travelling haha.

We had planned to go back to the Eiffel Tower at night to see it all lit up/have dinner/go up to the top, but due to unforeseen circumstances with stupid french websites that don’t accept Canadian credit cards, we ended up spending our evening taking the metro to the train station we needed to be at the next morning to pre-purchase our tickets that we had planned to order/print online. Lame indeed. This also saw us getting back to Montmartre rather late, so our last meal in Paris consisted of packaged grocery store bread and salami. ):

C’est la vie… it gives plenty of reason to go back. And I really enjoyed Paris - it is romantic in every sense of the word. I’m also rather convinced at this point that no one in Europe actually works, but they just sit around in cafe’s all day and watch people, or shop or eat. That sounds pretty nice.

Our next stop was Villefranche-sur-Mer! More relaxation than anything, but we will do a quick update soon. We are currently at a very… interesting… hotel overnight in Genova on our way to Florence. Let’s just say that we have an indoor balcony in our room haha. And our trip to actually get here was also quite interesting… but more on that soon. I’ve already written waaay too much.

So, Ciao from Italy. (:

Tea and Crumpets

Eennngland!

We finally have connection to the rest of the world! We arrived in Villefranche-sur-mer this morning, in the South of France. Internet was hard to come by in Paris, but we wouldnt have had time to update anyways. We’ve already seen thousands of years worth of history in one week, which is both incredible and a tad overwhelming. In a good way!

Our first day in London was pretty slow - we arrived very early and were quite exhausted, so we took it easy for most of the afternoon. Deb showed us around the Spitalfields and Brick Lane area where she lives - it was market day, so tons of little booths with clothes and trinkets were sprawled about. I wish we had more stuff like that more often back home.

The next day we got up at a decent hour and headed over to St Pauls.

The current building was built in 1675, so… it’s really old. One of the oldest things I had ever seen at that point… but then we went to the British Museum. They have REALLY old things.

But not before we saw PIDGEONS!

I hate pidgeons. We saw someone in Paris feeding them and taking a photo. They were all over his hand. YOU HAVE FLYING RATS ON YOUR HAND. Ew.

Anyways, the British Museum was amazing. And huuuuuuge. We barely saw any of it and we were there for a few solid hours. 

Yaaaaay stuff the English stole from the Greeks!

The second day we saw a lot of stuff. First up was the Tower of London, which is pretty touristy now but was really cool. They had lots of good historical write-ups and things, and we got to see the Crown Jewels! I had no idea they kept them there, or that the public was even allowed to see them. So that was a crazy awesome surprise.

Someone probably died/was tortured/had a terrible time in this tower. But I had fun.

Om noms!

PENGUINS!

After lunch we walked along the Thames all the way to Parliament and Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. Seriously amazing buildings… only pictures (kind of) do them justice:

Then we did even MORE walking (there was a lot of that this day) and went to Buckingham Palace!! 

And the flag was up so the Queen was in the house. (: I thought that was pretty awesome. Didn’t see any royalty in the flesh, though. We went on a tour of the Queen’s Gallery and the Royal Mews (PONIES!) which was pretty cool. Unfortunately we missed the actual Summer Royal Tour by ONE day, which sucks because I wanted to see Kate’s wedding dress. :C But oh well, not really going to complain about being in London.

He’s not really sad… maybe he just misses his kitty. Crazy old cat man.

After the palace… MORE WALKING!! To Trafalgar Square… we quickly saw Canada House and the National Gallery, which we are planning to go to when we head back to London at the end of our trip. But on this day we just people watched.

I love the guy beneath the clock who is totally stoked on the olympics being… 297 days away?

Then Clayton took a bunch of crazy photos! 

That night we also went out for a really nice dinner… seafood risotto and lamb, yum! Then we had to get back to Deb’s to pack up for our train to lovely Paris the next morning. 

Hopefully this gives you your fix for now, we’ll take you through our Paris journey soon! 

PS. Our pictures of us get more inventive in Paris… we are new to this “don’t do the same face/pose in every picture, it gets boring” thing. I promise they get more fun soon. :D

Across the Pond

We made it! A plane, train and automobile later and we have arrived at Deb’s house in London. I am already in love with her house and the hustle and bustle of the city.

We got in very early Sunday morning, around 7:30 am. Needless to say, this has made staying awake the entire day more challenging than we thought… countless cups of tea and a few naps today have gotten us through, not to mention the pure adrenaline pumping through every ounce of my body. I have absorbed so much today already I feel like an old sponge. But this is exactly what I wanted.

We just got back from a really nice walk through the city and over the Thames - got a look at a bit of the city, London Bridge, and walked along the river to Tower Bridge. Here’s just a quick taste. (:

We will (both of us, I hope!) be updating this in random spurts, sometimes cohesively and sometimes not. In any case, we hope this gives you a bit of the flavour into our travels through Euroland - the things, the people and the places. 

Cheers!