rome, day 2

michelangelo´s pieta, in st. pete´s basilica
me in front of st. peter´s basilica


last nite we took a walk along the tiber river. it was neat because along the bank of the river, where there is concrete, they have little shops and stands set up (more like stands than shops). there are little places selling things like hand made jewelry, and clothes, other places selling drinks. there are even places to sit down. paola is intrigued by one becuase they have a swimming pool at this bar. i insisted that it was just for show, but she wants to swim in it.

so today we woke up a bit late, and walked up the street to catch the bus to the vatican. on the way, crossing the river, we saw people swimming in the pool. so now paola wants to go swimming.

in any case, i wasnt sure how the buses worked here, so i was uncertain to get on. we found the one that would take us to vatican city, and realized, because we got on the back, that we didnt have to pay. that was a cool deal. on the way back, we also didnt pay. so the deal is that you are supposed to get a ticket before hand, and if they ask for it, you show it, or pay a fine. i figure that we dont have to show it, becuase even if we do get a ticket, we will be leaving the country in a few days anyway. so, we get free public transportation. cool.

vatican city was neat. the center piece is st. peters basilica. it was named st peters because that is supposedly where st peter, the first pope and one of jesus' deciples, is buried. the church is the biggest in europe, and apparently, up to a few years ago, the biggest in the world (i am not sure where the bigger one is, but not in europe). we went inside, and it was impressive. they take up all the space with lots of art and such. one work of art that is most impressive is michaelangelo's pieta, a statue of mary holding the dead christ's body. its a beautiful sculpture; vasari, in his 'lives' says that one only needs to see this sculpture, and no other for the rest of their lives. it really is neat. under the church, there is a tomb, where the popes are buried. we saw john paul ii tomb. it was much simpler than lots of the other ones. some people sat in front of it and prayed. one old lady was even crying. interesting.

around the corner from teh church is the vatican museums, which include the sistine chapel. there was a lot of old sculpture in there, even a bust of socrates that i liked. raphael also painted many of the rooms, and i liked seeing those pictures, especially the 'school of athens.' it is a neat picture with lots of the ancient philosophers depicted. i am most impressed with the rendition of heraclitus, which is actually a portrait of michaelangelo that raphael added after the rest of the picture was done (he added it after seeing the sistine chapel). the grand finale was the sistine chapel. the roof is all painted by michaelangelo, as is the wall behind the alter. quite impressive. i was talking to paola so much while looking at it that someone overheard, and asked if i could tell him more stuff, because he didnt know so much about it. that was a neat feeling, to be a teacher to an adult who wants to learn.

just to be clear....

a lot of the recent posts concerning florence, venice, and rome are out of order. if you use your brain, however, and know that the proper order of our trip has been florence, then venice, and most recently rome, you should be able to make sense, and know that venice day 4 did not happen after arriving in rome (or whatever mistake the computer has made here).

in any case, i know that there are no pictures, but i am trying to fix that. it is going to take some interesting solutions and work arounds (the internet cafes do not allow direct access to our data...). hopefully there will be pictures shortly......

rome, first real day

the coloseum, early in the morning.
paola and george in front of fountain of trevi



because we didnt get home until about 1am last nite, we woke up a bit late this morning. we started by looking for a place where we could get some good for breakfast; we decided on some fruit, bread, and prosciutto.

to make clear our accomodations, we are staying in an apartment that is in the same building that paola’s dad used to live in. aparently the owner of teh building is away, and we are either in her apartment, or in one that she has specially set up for renting on a weekly basis as a guest place.

so we got up and saw lots of things today. we walked to piazza venezia. it is rather big, and paola says that it is the parliment building. from there we could see the coloseum, so we went down there, and inside. it was neat. we then roamed around the forum, or palantie hill, which is right next to the coloseum, and is old ruins of the main center, etc. it was neat to roam around the old ruins.

we then went to piazza novona, which has a large fountain in the middle, and is surrounded by many restaurants. it is a long oval square, and the main building was covered by scaffolding, so we really couldnt see it. it seems that everywhere we go in italy, they are cleaning some old building, covering it with scafolding, and obstructing everyone’s view of classic architecture.

the pantheon was a short walk from there. it is an ancient building, and the oldest roman dome still standing. it is considered a marvel of ancient roman architecture.

finally we saw the fountain di tevi. it is a large fountain with all sorts of scuptures, neptune among them. for me it was the hi-lite of the day, even though it was so crowded. it was very awe inspiring.

venice, day 4

a view of the church san marco in the main piazza


today was our last day in venice. we are to catch a plane at 930pm, so we have a lot of time to kill. we didnt want to sit at the airport for a really long time like we did at stansted (from london to italy), so we left our bags with the hotel, and just tried to kill the time however we could. we started by going to the arsenale for the biennale. that was just a bunch of absurd and crappy contemporary art. i didnt like any of it, and neither did paola (to be sure, i am more open to contemporary art than paola is, so if i didnt like it, it is a certainty that she wouldnt). then we just walked around to waste the time.

i think that too long in anyone place is not a good thing. especially when we are on a tour like this, a city seems to get a little boring after too long. this certainly happened with venice, with the whole city looking the same everywhere we went, and all the people crowding the streets. paola made the observation that the city is just too small to comfortably accomodate all of the tourists that come in, thus making everything a jam of people. in any case, we are happy to be going to rome now. we’ll see what that does for us, especially since we will be there for seven days (before going to greece). paola says that rome is big enough to not get bored in, and since we are going to be staying in someone’s apartment (a previous neighbor of paola’s dad), it will seem more like home, and more bearable.

right now we are sitting in the airport, waiting for them to allow us to check in.
i hate airports.

arriving in rome (july 25)

so our plane landed at about 1030pm. whilst en route, the flight attendants were kind enough to sell us a ticket for a bus to take us from the airport to the center of rome (in fact, the train terminal). in any case, it is now after 1200am, and we are still waiting on that bus to take us into rome from the airport. that means that we have been sitting out here in the dark for an hour and a half. i hate airports.

venice, day 3 (july 24)

george and paola inside ducale palace in venice


today we planned to go to the academia gallery, and then to the arsenale space for the biennale. we started with the academia. there was a lot of venetian art from the 14th century on, and it was good stuff (it was in a gallery, after all), but i think that both of us were too art-ed out, and we couldnt really appreciate too much of it; there is only so much art that one could look at within a short period of time (especially art devoted to christianity). that being the case, we decided not to go to the arsenale, since it would only be a lot of contemporary art that we would almost certainly not appreciate much (and i believe that many people wouldnt, except maybe the artist’s mothers, who still wouldnt understand it).

so we decided to walk around venice, and see what there was. at first, one is overwhelmed by all of the different roads and such, and it is famous for being easy to get lost in. however, there are main pathways, that although are not marked, are easy enough to figure out if you actually think, instead of relying on a map. the problem is, though that most tourists are on this road, so it gets quite a bit congested. in any case, we ended up walking around the whole city, and it was neat enough. in fact, i did get a bit bored when i realized that everything looked the same. now certainly, at first, one is charmed by the look of the city and the character that such portrays (after all, it is only the architeccture by which one could get an impression of the character of this city, since it is so overrun by tourists that it is quite difficult to get an sense of the character of the city from the people living here (nonetheless, there are little pockets that we explored, off of the main path where we saw real life (as opposed to tourist life))). it was the same effect as looking at so much art: one can only see so much of the same sort of thing before becoming tired of it. however, there were a few interesting buildings that did break the monatony. one was supposed to be san maria gloriosa dei frari, which from what i could gather was either late rennassaince or neo classical style (based on the otherr stuff around the city, i would guess neoclassical style because it seems that this city is actually rather modern). however, maybe becuase there were concerts scheduled to be played there, or because someone wanted to be a jerk, there were patio roofs constructed over the side walk, obstructing a decent view of the building. to be sure, there is a lot of cleaning of old buildings, and thus a lot of scaffolds and such (which usually obstruct the entire wall or section of a building), but this was not a scaffolding. after finally having a chance to see something different, and having it obstructed like this, i got upset, and started voicing my opinion rather loudly, making sure that anyone within the vicinity was certain to know my opinion on this patio roofing. (like i said before, venice is overrun by tourists, mostly american, and others who know english, so i was pretty sure that people understood my profanity.) i tired to get a few pictures, but it was hard, so i gave up. by this time, i had given up on taking pictures, anyway, since it all seemed the same.

by this time, we went home and took a nap, which has been our pattern for any city in which we stay for three days. we then woke up and went out to eat dinner. on our way back, we took some night pictures that seemed to look neat, so my spirits were raised a bit. we stopped over one of the bridges over a canal, and took some experimental pictures. but that is not the interesting part.

there were two girls there (from their manner of speaking, i guess that they might have been from southern california). they were art students, drawing the picture of the canal (as everybody does). they seemed to be halfway decent, and took a lot of time with their drawings. in any case, then a gondolier floated by with his gondola and remarked ‘two artists; i cant believe it!’ (of course being sarcastic since there are so many artists in venice drawing, painting, or photographing the same thing; but the sarcasm was in good fun, and the girls sensed it.) one of the girls had the courage to ask, ‘how about a free gondola ride?’ at which the gondolier answered, without much deliberation, ‘sure, come on.’ the girls got excited, gathered up all their art stuff, and jumped on. (by the way, these gondola rides cost about 65 euros (80 dollars), without the customary tip). in any case, i felt happy for the girls, and for humanity in general. you see, it seems to me that most people dont feel that people are generally good and nice to each other. however, i disagree, and certainly give individual people benifit of the doubt. i remember one the train ride from florence to venice that there was this couple ahead of us while getting on the train. the woman got on first, and the man was still making sense of how to manage all the baggage to step on the train, and so he let another woman ahead of him. then the wife put her baggage in the special place for baggage, and the second woman put her stuff there as well, taking up all the space for baggage, and not leaving any for the husband. in any case, the wife called the woman a bitch for having cut in front of her husband. her husband stopped her and told her that he had allowed the woman ahead. i dont know how the wife felt, but she should have felt like crap, having jumped to a negative conclusion before considering a positive one. i hope the girl learned the lesson. i try to take individual people, and assume (at least) decency, knowing that we are all trying to get to the same place. that said, the only people i dont assume decency for are the employees at airports, who only work against humanity to stiffle the possibility of a comfortable transit.

venice, day 2 (july 23)

george and paola in front of one of the many canals


today we started by walking around san marco piazza. we went into the museo correo (i think that is the name) and saw the lucian freud exhibition and their regular collection. i enjoyed the paintings on display, and even bought the catalog. the regular collection was interesting, but i did not appreciate it as much (perhaps because i dont know that much about venetian history). however, the same ticket also got us into ducale palace, which is just on the other side of the piazza.

ducale palace is interesting from the outside because of its pink bricks in diamond patterns on the facade. the building was to not only house the doge (the ruler) and his family, but is also used as an administrative building, like city hall. there were a lot of neat paintings on all of the walls by (mostly) veronese. he paints well, but i havent studied him too much, or been exposed to his stuff much. the palace also has a prison, which was interesting. one interesting prisoner was giacomo casanova, who is famous for being a good lover. in any case, he was also lots of other things, like a philosopher, traveler, etc, and he thought that his life was interesting enough to write a twelve volume autobiography. anyone who is cool enough to think that we should read that much about him, interests me enough (based soley on his own self confidence) to read an abridged version when i get home.

later we went to one of the main venues for the venice bienniale. we learned that besides the many galleries around town that are exhibiting artists, there are two main centers, a garden devoted just for the bienniele, and the arsenel base. today we saw the garden, which had many exhibitions. it was like an amusement park, and we went to the different galleries to see different exhibitions by different countries. to be honest, contemporary art is very difficult for me to comprehend or appreciate (in fact, i find a lot of it just stupid), and these exhibitions didnt change my perception. actually, the one that we did see that i liked was by taiwan, called ‘spectre of freedom.’ typically i dont like video art, but this one, in the context of this exhibition, really appealed to me. it was basically several television sets showing the different videos that were centered on the artist performing jackass-like stunts. it made me laugh. however, i saw it as brilliant due to the title of the exhibition title.

after the bienniale show, we walked around for a bit. something that i thought was interesting that is very popular here in venice are theater masks. at first, i thought that they were a bit silly, but they started to appeal to me since i saw the intracate detail and special attention that is paid to the design of these masks. they are basically masks that are worn during carnivale, which is a celebration before lent (like mardi gras, or carnivale in rio de janero). everybody runs aroudn with these masks on, wearing gowns to complete their masquerade outfits. the only place that i could relate it to was like the secret meeting in ‘eyes wide shut’ by stanley kubrick and starring tom cruise. i think that i want to buy a blank mask and try to make my own when i get back home.

7/22 first day in venice

a canal in venice


besides airports, i think that i also hate the path from the airport, or, in this case, train station to our temporary residence. in florence it wasnt so bad because paola’s dad was there, and although he didnt know where he was going any more than any of us, he seemed to be in charge. today, either paola or i were in charge. actually, it was more like in quantum mechanics, where it was a superpostion of paola and i in charge (which means that it doesnt make sense to say that paola was in charge, or that george was in charge, or that both of us were in charge, or that neither of us were in charge: thus superpostion). in any case, it we just wondered around, and asked people. it seemed as though everyone had a different opinion in which way we should go. actually, every single person that we asked pointed us in the right direction, but we still managed to seem lost. this is an easy situation to find yourself in while in venice.

in any case, we finally ofund our hotel. when we walked in, it seemed as though dracula lived there, and after i mentioned that idea, it also seemed like a bad scary movie (where after that is mentioned, dracula comes out and kills the person who said it). besides that, however, the hotel room is very nice, designed in what the propriators call the venetian style (basically, fancy wallpaper and curtains). paola is certainly impressed, while i wouldnt mind no matter the hotel as long as there was a roof, a door, and a full bathroom.

after i calmed down (like i said, i hated the trek there, and it angered me) with a shower, we went out exploring. we are very close to piazza san marco, which seems to be the main center in the whole city. there is a nice church (whose name i do not yet know) with very moorish features, such as the bubble dome. there are actually many cathedrals around venice that have such features, as we could tell in the ferry ride from the train station to piazza san marco (there are no cars in venice, only water taxis (ferries) that travel through the canals, and such). in any case, this main center is very impressive, and many restaurants have quartets playing classical or jazz music. another feature is the many pigeons. there are so many pigeons on the ground, it is ridiculous. perhaps the people who feed them are not from big cities and dont see pigeons every day. i know i do, and i have no desired to buy a bag of corn and have them eat out of my hand (i am scared that they will shit on me). one thing that was neat is that a favorite painter of mine, lucian freud, is having an exhibition here. he is one of the most important living painters. his pictures are of a realist, but very distinct style, and they are typically portraits of friends, family members, or whoever else). also, there is venice bienniale going on, which is an exhibition all over town in different galleries of contemporary art from all over the world (although most of the venues are in one area called the arsenele, which is cool) . this seems weird to me that in such a classical city there is such an emphasis on contemporary and modern art (there is even a guggenheim museum here which houses some important 20th century art, and where peggy guggenheim herself is buried). we also plan to see some more classic art in the ducale gallery, which is in the san marco square. we will try to do as much as we can in the next three days.

while walking around, we got lost in the tangle of small streets (some so skinny that i honestly think that some really fat people would have some trouble getting through. it is also neat because if you walk enough, you will inevitably get to some canal that you have to cross over a small bridge. because venice seems so big, i dont know if we will be able to get to cross all of the tangle of streets, and alleys. i think that if we actually try to hit up all the different venues for the bienniale, we will see most of the city (though that may be too ambitious of a task). you see, venice seems to be a series of small islands divided by several canals, and with all the winding streets, there is a lot to cover.

florence, day 3

my favorite sculpture of perseus by cellini (i think)


we got up early and had our complimentary breakfast. after learning taht checkout time was 1130, we walked around a bit, to catch some last sites we missed. we saw san croce cathedral, which was neat. one thing that we did resolve that was stressing me was how to get to greece. we happened to see an olympic air place, so we went in to check out air fares. let me go back a moment to an incident that happened on our second day in florence. when we were at palazzo pitti (after we decided that we werent going to go in), i saw a greek couple, and thought to ask them what the best way to greecce was. you see, my main problem was that we couldnt find an airline to take us directly from rome to athens. aegean air and olympic air both had websites that were shit, and we couldnt manage to get a proper booking online (due to their poor web design), so we quit with them, and forgot about them. back to the greeks. i wanted to go up to them, but they had just bought tickets to go inside the gallery, and since they were walking in, my excuse for not talking to them was that they were on their way to do something, and i would have certainly bothered them. i decided that if i saw another greek, i would ask them. it so happened that very soon after, another greek pair passed us, but i didnt talk to them either. i am much too shy, you know. i felt embarassed that i didnt talk to either couple, but figured ‘whatever.’ then there werre three greek guys who passed us (all of these people i could tell by their language, and the fact that they were carrying ugide books with greek writing on them). you see, the last two couples were older people, so i didnt feel comfortable, but these three guys were just our age, and looked cool, so i stopped them, ‘siygnomi.’ i introduced myself, and revealed to them that i didnt speak much greek. at first i think that they thought i was weird, because they didnt know what this was all about; they definietly had weird looks on their faces. but as then asked them about the best ways to get from rome to athens, they loosened up, and with their little english, and my little greek, it went pretty well. they recommended aegean airlines, and one of them gave me their ticket stub with the web address, and the phone number. it felt good knowing that i could communicate effectively enough in greek.

back to the third day in florence. we after finishing with santa croce (i thought it was ‘san’ but apparently this is a woman), we walked back to the hotel, ready to check out. on the way, we saw a travel agency with a big ad for greece in the front. (by the way, i stopped with the olympic air, and they quoted me a price, but i didnt buy, knowing i could probably come back later, and i wanted to see if i could find a price lower than 286 euros). so we stopped in the travel agency, and asked them for flights from rome to athens. she quoted me 276 euros with olympic (that we talked to earlier; although the price seems cheaper, it isnt becuase she would have added taxes). becuase we did our home work with the greek guys, i asked about aegean air. she quoted us an even lower price, which was cool enough, so we took it. so, now we have our tickets to greece for august 31, and much stress is reduced.

florence, day 2

paola and george at point vecchio bridge

statue of david by michaelangelo




we were worried that we had not set enough time aside to see all of the interesting things in florence. our dilema, then, was whether we should stay an extra night or not. given the nature of our trip, this should not have been such a dilema, but we had already booked a flight from venice (our destination after florence) to rome. this meant that if we did stay an extra night in florence, we would have to either cut a day out of venice, or re-book the flight, which would mean that the cost of the ticket we had already bought would be a complete loss, due to the nature of online flight reservations, plus whatever cost the new tickets would be. we decided that on our third day, since we were taking a train to venice, we could use however much time to see whatever we would not have seen yet, thus not staying in florence an extra day. in any case, florence is such that if we really wanted to see everything, we would probably have to stay a week or close to it, and that is an option that didnt interest us.

we decided to start early with the uffizzi gallery, since the queus are infamous for being about two hours long to get in. despite our interest in cutting this time down, we still had to wait two hours to get in. some things in life have to be accepted. in any case, it allowed us to appreciate in detail the design of the uffizzi gallery. it was designed in the rennassaince period by vassari (whom i already mentioned previously as having designed the university in pisa, and who is especially famed for his writing the ‘lives of the artists.’) the building is a long rectangular ‘u’ shape, which was originally designed to be offices (‘uffizzi’ in italian) for the medici family (who basically ruled florence during that time; i want to read up on the history of the period when i get home as my current understanding is only in context of the art history of the time). it is also interesting that one of my favorite portraits of lorenzo medici (called ‘magnifico’) is by vassari (it seems that artists of the rennassaince did a little bit of everything: architecture, painting, sculpting, writing, practical inventions, as is seen in vassari, michaelangelo, da vinci, cellini, and others). but that picture is alone as a great one in the gallery.

indeed, the uffizzi gallery is perhaps the most imporant collection of rennassaince art (i have to qualify that i really dont know much about art history, but i cant understand that there would be any disagreements with that claim). they have michaelangelo’s masterpiece of the holy family, whose colors are so vivid, and composition and posing so progressive that many people consider it the greatest and most important painting of the 16th century (it is certainly my favorite of the period). there are also two da vinci paintings, one which is my favorite by him, ‘the adoration of the magi,’ which although incomplete, still amazes with its draftsmanship and composition. there were many great rafael’s also. one artist that surpised me was boticcelli, whom i didnt particularly care for before. his most famous painting is ‘the birth of venus,’ with her standing on the clam shell, her hair covering her breasts and pubis. seeing it in person, and comparing it with his other works shows how pale the colors in the painting are, and as such, did not impress me. however, his other works in the collection impressed me much more, and i will have to read up on him when i get home. the three paintings by carravaggio in uffizzi were my favorite. his painting of bacchus is a typical, and generally good. however the shield with medussa’s decapitated head, and abraham ready to sacrifice issac were amazing with the facial expressions revealing such feelings and evoking in the viewer such emotion. besides the michaelangelo, these were my favorites of the gallery. there were many other good ones, especially an el greco; i have never seen an el greco i did not love (perhaps i am biassed).

after about two hours of exploring the uffizzi gallery, we headed to the academia to see michaelangelo’s ‘david.’ one the way, just north of the uffizzi gallery, is some piazza. certainly it is important, but i forgot its name. in any case, the main building was basically city hall during the rennaissance period. outside there are great scuptures, including a copy of michealangelo’s david. it is neat to see it outside, since it was commissioned (by the medici’s, i think; i am ashamed to not be sure (although i am 90 percent sure) since i read a book primarily on the statue) to be placed outside. there is also a covered area in the piazza that has many rennaissance sculptures, including one that i especially like of perseus holding high medussa’s head (a favorite theme of mine since childhood). another favorite theme for which there is a sculpture is judith decapitating holofernes (from the old testament). i first learned about the story from a carravagio painting of the scene (which i hope to see at some point on this trip, but i dont know where it is), which is still my favorite representation of it (i like looking for images of this scene to compare with the carravaggio; none have stood up to it for my tastes).

just north of this piazza is the main site of the city, which is the piazza del duomo (a name easy enough to remember (and now i will), but i had to look up just now, since it seems like such an important point). it has the main cathedral, with its bell tower, and a baptistry. it is a marvel of rennaissance architecture, with marble green and white walls, and the orange dome designed by brunelleschi (i dont know who designed the rest of the cathedral, which is much earlier than the rennaissance period). this dome is important because it is so big, and nobody really knew how to construct such a dome before him. and as a book claims (which i have yet to read, but intend to when i get back), he changed architecture with its design.

the baptistry is also famous, designed before the rennaissance, yet having important rennaissance elements. the most famous is the doors, designed by ghilbertti. he won the competition to design the doors over donatello, and this is one of the important early events of the rennaissance period. we didnt go inside either building, so i cant say what’s inside (though i intend to in a future trip).

we stood in line for another hour at the academia. but we finally got inside and saw two important sculptures. the first one is the ‘rape of the sabines’ (by i dont know who). it is big and impressive in its serpentive poses of the man taking the women. the second one, and many times more important is michaelangelo’s ‘david.’ it is big too. there was also some thirteenth and fourteenth century art, which i dont particularly care for, so the rest of the museum was a bit of a dissappointment. i have decided that it was necessary to see the ‘david,’ so it was worth the 8 euro admission and hour wait (the uffizzi was two hour wait, and 6.50 euro), but i probably wont go see it again, unless someone who wants to is with me. another startling thing about the academia is that they dont allow you to take photos of the statue (i suppose they want you to buy their own images). paola and i felt that was rediculous, so we took pictures anyway (behind pillars where we could not be seen). (by the way, the uffizzi gallery had the same policy, and to further implement it, they had most of the important works behind glass, which, because of reflections, not only limited the quality of photos one could take, but also imparred our own perceptions of the works; that was one thing that sucked).

after accademia, we decided to basically retrace our steps all the way south again (where we were before) to point vecchio bridge (which was a bit west from uffizzi). apparently the bridge is the oldest in the city. even when napoleon took over, and destroyed every other bridge in the city, he kept this one up, due to its greatness. (i must admit, that although i would not have destroyed it, i dont think that i would have treated it much different from the others). what is impressive, i suppose, is that on either side, along the length of the bridge, there are jewelry stores (the other bridges dont have those). neat. on the other side of the bridge is the palazzo pitti gallery, which is in what used to be the family residence of the pittis. they must have been really rich, because it has to be the largest building in the city (except for the cathedral, which is owned by the catholic church, who is probably the richest entity in the world). they have an impressive garden in the back, but because they charged for every little gallery that they had, and after a day of looking at art, we decided not to go inside. maybe next time. then we basically just walked around, gathering in the local sites (which include other large buildings owned by important families, which all follow the same basic pattern, nonetheless still impressive), and then went to eat dinner.

(here i digress a bit to when we stayed with paola’s dad and his wife to describe how we had been eating. some of the episodes, i may have described previously, so please forgive the repitition.) thanks to the wonderful hospitality of paola’s dad and his wife, it was the first meal we had to pay for in a week, so we spoiled ourselves (not in comparrison to the grand meals we had with paola’s dad and his wife, but comparred to what we normally get by ourselves). you see, in italy, where apparently they take eating seriously (actually this is not just the italians, but actually is everyone except me; nonetheless) there was an italian manner of dining that i was not familiar with. besides appetizers, which we rarely got, there is first course, and second main course. because i dont speak italian, i usually let someone order for me, and i would get both courses. i would usually be full after the first course, which typically consisted of some spagetti plate or another. then the second course would come, that would typically be meat or fish, and i would eat little, or until i was about to explode, which didnt feel too good. they also always got at least one bottle of wine (sometimes two). (we would typically go to a place where they sold their own wine, but they would never stoop to buying their own wine. instead they would buy other wine, and try to find something wrong with it. in fact, at one place, we had the head chef actually take back the first bottle. he agreed that the wine had been oxidized (i dont know what that means, but apparently it didnt taste proper; i couldnt tell, as i typically dont drink alcoholic beverages for taste, but rather just to get plastered, which is why my drink of choice is straight vodka (or whatever strong (no matter how poor tasting) alcoholic beverage is around). he then brought something else out, which i could agree did not smell good. in fact, the chef came back to see the new wine (not knowing that we were bad-mouthing it) and tasted it, thinking that something was wrong with it too.) the meal would typically end with coffee or grappa (which i previously described as tasting like paint thinner).

so we spoiled ourselves to a similar dinner. however, after a week of not finishing the second course, we decided to order one, and share it, with a salad, after the our individual first courses of spagetti. we didnt have the shots of coffee or grappa afterwards.

first day in florence

an image of the duomo, in the main center of florence.


after eating lunch in chiatne, we drove into florence, which is only about six kilometers away. howeverr, it took us a long time to find the hotel at which we had reservations, coupled with the fact that roads in florence are not ideally suited for full size cars (or even compact cars for that matter). so we finally just parked the car (it was very difficult to find a parking space), and lugged our luggage while searching for the hotel on foot. we finally found it, after winding through all kinds of skinny roads, aleft our luggage in the room, and explored the new destination with paola’s dad. we saw most of the major sites (the bapistry and duomo (dome) cathedral (whose name escapes me now, but is the famous main attraction), the uffizi gallery, the main piazzas (squares), point vecchio bridge (which is the oldest bridge in the city, covered with jewelry shops, an historical tradition)). it so happens that every year in florence, there is a youth music festival, which brings in youth orchestras (college students, i figure) from all over europe. it so further happened that the first day that we were in town, they had such a concert at some church or another. (perhaps i should be embarrassed that i cant remember all of the italian place names (i was able to in london), but most of them start with ‘san’ and end with an ‘o’ so that is my rationalization for forgetting (or not caring to remember) all of the names.) what made it especially enticing was that it was free! so after seeing a lot of the sites with paola’s dad, and sitting to talk with him before we leave him for a long time), we stopped by the hotel to clean up, and went to the concert.

the orchestra was called the ‘youth and music orchestra of antwerp.’ the music that they played was the violin concerto by bruch, and something by mussorgsky, which has a recognizable theme, but whose name i forget (there was also a first piece which was very generic, and i thought it to be a little more than time filler; the composer’s name, and the name of the piece i forget, nor do i care to remember). both pieces were pretty good. the violinist shredded through the music with virtuoso talent. the mussorgsky piece was longer than expected, but still very good, although throughout the concert, a descriminating observer could hear the inexperience and immaturity in the orchestra. it was generally good, and free of charge, thus, much worth it.

one intersting episode during the concert was in the audience. becuase we arrived early, we got the best seats (none were assigned), but next to us was a seat that said ‘reserved.’ i never saw anyone come to claim the seat, but apparently the person sitting behind us did (indeed, there was a camera bag there, indicating someone had claimed it). then comes in this big woman in a blue summer dress halfway through the first piece of music that was being performed, plowing thorugh the aisles looking for an empty seat. i knew the reserved seat next to me was not occupied, and i hoped that she would not sit there, but she did. she asked me something in italian, which i didnt understand, and paola did not hear, but i pointed to the ‘reserved’ sign on the seat. she promply sat down. an american man sitting behind us (who happened to be some relation to the violinist performing the concerto) told her in english that the seat was reserved, and that she couldnt sit there, she responded to him in italian, in a manner that seemed to be saying that she was the person for whom the seat was reserved, even raising her voice. the man continued to argue with her, but to no avail, only responding ‘yeah, right’ when she finally sat down and pointed to her chest with her thumb, mumbling something. she then went into her bag and pulled out some sort of leaflet, showing it to him, as if that proved that she was the person who was supposed to sit there. she then mumbled something to me, but i tried to ignore it. however, due to my character, i had to respond with at least a silent smile, indicating that i didnt understand her. she then pulled out the concert programme, and mumbled, ‘bruch’ as if she was there to see bruch’s music. she then handed to me the same leaflet that she showed the man (the one i thought indicated her authority, despite her shabby appearance). i read on the cover that it was an advertising for tours around florence. she seemed to enjoy the concert, even if her presence made me feel uncomfortable. after the fact, i felt a bit guilty (not for prejudging her, for certainly she was not the person for whom the seat was reserved). perhaps when i pointed to the reserved sign on the chair, she thought i was making a hand motion as to offer her the seat, thus making me responsible for her believing that she could sit there. interestingly enough, on our last day in florence, which was friday (recall that this concert was on wednesday), we saw this exact same lady walking the streets near basilico san croce (one place name that i remember) wearing the same dress. having decided at the instant that she sat next to us two nights earlier that she was mad, we crossed the street, lest she recognize us and give us another leaflet.

7/22 (firday) on the train out of florence/ summary of florence

as i write this, we are on the train from florence to venice on friday, the 22nd of july. the events discussed here took place between wednesday the 20 it is scheduled to be about a three hour ride.

ride from bolgheri in tuscanny to florence (also part of tuscanny, apparently)
on the first day that we arrived in venice (wednesday), paola’s dad and his wife drove us in. we drove first through the chiante region of tuscanny, which is close to florence (they needed to drop off some wine, or perform some other wine business). this region, is apparently the most scenic region in tuscanny. it so happens hat a movie called ‘stealing beauty’ was filmed here (and teh scenery is supposed to be beuatiful (in that movie, starring liv tyler (whom i dont particularly care for), which i did not see nor do i especially care to)). the best film referrence for me of chiante was in ‘silence of the lambs’. hanibal lecter (played by anthony hopkins) says that he wants to (or already did) eat somebody’s liver with fava beans and a nice bottle of chiante. well, the wine that he wants to drink while eating human liver would be produced in this region of tuscanny! now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

khan, paola’s dad’s wife, also told us about another region in tuscanny that is famous for its pop culture referrence. this region (which we did not visit) is called arrezzo. an american writer nameed francis meyer wrote ‘under a tuscan sun’ and was referring to arrezzo. it so happens tht this is one of the few american books that is translated and printed in italy, and is about italy (apparently the italians dont like american preconceptions (and post-conceptions) of italy, however this book seems to have been right on in describing italian mannerisms and ways of life. according to khan, the movie is terrible compared to the book (she admitted that she had never seen the movie, but this is typically the case regarding such book to movie translations), and suggested that we read it (paola might, but i think that it is certain that i will not). in any case, she also told us the aftermath of the success of the book. apparently she wrote in the book where she lived, or someone knew and told everyone else. in any case, it so happened that every american who read and appreciated the book came to her house and visited her, as if she were a friend. this upset her, as i think it would anyone, and she eventually moved out. however, before she did that, she did allow her home to be rented per week for some extraordinary sum (sometimes fans can be very enthusiastic). she finally sold the home, and bought another one somewhere else in tuscanny. this time she kept it a secret. she then followed up her success with that book by writing another one. however, according to khan and paola’s dad, it is mostly favorite italian recipes (i am certain that i wont read that book either).

florence, first two days

well, we came to florence yesterday, and saw most of the outsides of things with paola's dad. i was very impressed. today we walked to the ufizzi gallery and saw great works of art. we also went to academia, and saw the david statue. that was neat. i should write more later, since we are in another city in which our internet access plans did not pan out, and we are paying. i promise, more will be written (and pictures will be posted).

tomorrow we leave for venice. it should be ve(ry)nice.

at the beach

we spent most of tuesday at the beach, and got tanned. the sea was rough for mediteranian conditions, but not much different from the ocean in southern california. many people here seemed to be intimidated by it, as it does not get rough like this often.

today we move on to the next city of our trip, florence.

moltacino

a tuscan landscape in moltacino.


on monday, we spent the whole day in moltacino. this is a small wine making vilage in tuscanny where paola's dad has another vineyeard, and had to take care of some business. apparently, it is the best wine making region in tuscanny. walking through the village, 4 out of five store sold wine. this was mainly for the tourists, i imagine, since i dont understand how the locals would buy so much wine. indeed, there were a lot of tourists, which surprised me since the town was so far out of the way. i guess being the best wine making town makes you popular.

a quick story. paola's dad informed us that until about the 1950s, this town was very poor. the land could not grow much, due to its poor quality. well, it so happens that grapes thrive in such an environment, and someone figured out to grow grapes here. apparently it developed really good wine, so the town exploded. it became very wealthy. at one point, many plots were farmed by sharecroppers, who worked another person's land. at some point, the government decided they did not like this, so they said the sharcroppers had a right to buy their land from the owners with the assistance of low interest loans. many did, and either kept it, or sold it again for a profit. however, one of those people who kept it is an old man who shares land borders with paola's dad. it is his assumption that the land that he probably bought 40 years ago for about ten thousand dollars is worth about ten million now. neat. we met this old man and his wife, and he looked like a typical farmer. i suppose that millionaires from tuscanny are different from millionaires in beverly hills.

visiting pisa

george, paola, frano in pisa




yesterday we did little, except go to the beach. paola's dad let us use his old jeep, that is typically used for farming duties, to drive to the beach. it was fun to drive an old car again. it reminded me of my old bug. after we left the beach, we found out that the parking space that we left the car in was a no-parking space. we could have gotten the car towed away, but nothing happened, so all is just fine.

today we went to pisa, to see the sites there. al i thought that was there was a leaning building, but there was a lot more. there is a town that went through past to at least the medeival period (several buildings were around a thousand years old). there were many churches, and paola's dad explained to us the different aspects of the architecture, ranging from medieval, to renaissance, to gothic, and even muslim and armenian. his explainations enhanced the experience. in the main center, there was the leaning tower, a cathedral, and a bapistry. i was most impressed with the cathedral (i have never been a fan of the leaning tower, but it still impressed me seeing it in person). we also went inside the cathedral and the bapistry (i didnt feel like climbing the steps to the top of the leaning tower). another site that impressed me was a university that was designed by vassari. he is actually more well known for writing the lives (short biographies) of the rennaisance painters (so many individuals are included that it is often not published completely, but usually only covering the 20 or so most famous renaissance artists).

i will post pictures later, since we cant get a direct connection to our computer, but rather have to copy to a disk, then upload to the disk. we should put pictures up by tuesday evening.

new posts

today i posted a few out of order posts that i had written in the computer while i lacked internet access to upload them. i also included some pictures with some of the old posts, so you might want to scroll down to look at them. for being so patient, i am posting some extra pictures of paola and myself while in london. the picture of us together was in paddington circus, which is a street circle intersection which tries to be like time square.

first day in tuscany (july 15)

one of the machines in which wine is made (by magic).

a picture of the vineyard


i woke up in the middle of night twice last night. the reason was that i was getting eaten by mosquitos, and scratching myself awake. when i awoke in the morning, i thought that perhaps it was a dream, reminding me of the first (and last) time i was in greece, about 13 years ago. it was in a similar country town, and i must have had at least 30 mosquito bites at one time. anyway, when i woke up, i didnt find any trace of them, so i felt good. as the day went on, though, i realized that i wasnt so lucky, and, indeed, i had been bitten several times by something or another. it wasnt so bad, but still. i hope the same thing does not happen tonite.

so today paola’s fatherr took us around town, and showed us his winery business, and how wine is produced, and sold, and such. perhaps i can make wine now; it seemed easy enough, and i think i can do it without all the fancy equipment. afterall, how did people make wine before such technology? the same way i am going to do it! the country side is pleasant, and it is not far at all from the sea. we are on the west coast of italy, so i dont exactly know the name of the sea, but it is still nice. while paola’s father and wife had to attend to some important business (apparently some wine commision folks were coming by to find out if the wine was fit to be sold, and they had to attend to them), paola and i took their bikes, and rode to the beach.

i thought the path would be easy, merely go east, and we are destined to find sea, but it was not so simple. we basically got lost trying to get out of the vineyeard area (where many different people have are planting their own grapes), despite the directions that paola’s father gave us (i must admit that due to my overconfidence to find the proper path, i wasnt really listening, and apparently neither was paola). so after riding around in circles for a while (we rode by their house about three times), we finally found the main road (within the vineyard area, all the roads are dirt roads), and got to the beach. this, however, was not without incident.

being that this is the country, the roads are not especially wide (though wide enough for two way traffic), and certainly, there are no bike lanes. paola got a bit overwhelmed by this, and was very scared for pretty much the whole ride to the beach. by the time we got to the beach, we both rode far and hard (paola’s father said it was about 5 miles, and i am not inclined to disagree). paola’s face was beet red, and she declared that she would not ride back.

so we stayed at the beach for a while and enjoyed ourselves. we started by sitting at some beach chairs with umbrellas. however, these belonged to the hotel, and before long, we were told to move off. so we did. then we were told that the whole area was reserved for teh hotel, so we then had to move away. basically, the only region that did not belong to some hotel or other was a strip of land about 10 meters in width that went from the street to the water. so we had to lay out there. and it was nice. we finally rode back at about 6, just long enough to begin the foundations of a tan, but not long enough to really burn.

because everyone was leaving the beach at about this time, there was a lot of traffic. this definitely scared paola, but she was determined to beat her fear, and make it home. however, her dad happened to drive by (i doubt it was a coincidence), and her emotions got the best of her. she did carry on, though, not wanting to wimp out of riding the bike home....

after getting home, i shared a discussion with paola’s dad about linguistics, and history, which was very entertaining and informative.

later we went out to dinner to a nice restaurant which happened to sell paola’s dad’s wine (again, i doubt it was a coincidence). it was a nice seafood place right on the water. i mean right on the water; you could just about jump from our table into the sea. we were also lucky to catch a nice sunset. i also got a few good lessons at wine tasting, and learned that if i want to open up a restaurant, which i do (perhaps before or after or while becoming an architect and/ or wine maker), i should probably go to cooking school (my plan was to just let my dad run that part of the business, while i stood as the pretty face at the door). at the end of the meal (we stayed until closing), the host offered us a shot of grappa, which smelled and tasted like paint thinner. it wasnt so bad, though, as i am wide awake and writing this at 1:30 in the morning (and that is after sharing 3 bottles of wine between the four of us).

stansted airport (july 14)

We got to the airport here at about 2 oclock. it is now 6 oclock and i feel as though i am about to go mad. if i have not said it before, i will say it now: i hate airports. nothing particularly bad has happened here today, expect that we have been waiting, and waiting, and waiting. and to top that, we should have boarded the airplane about 10 minutes ago, but still the airplane is nowhere to be seen. let’s say that it lands in the next minute. then it would still have to let everybody off whose destination city is this one. that will take about 10 to 20 minutes. then they will have to clean up the plane of all of teh rubbish that the people have left, such as food wrappers, used snot tissue and condoms. that might take up 10 to fifteen minutes. thus, the plane will probably be at least 30 minutes late. people are already beginning to form a queue to board, despite the fact that nobody has told them to do so. i figure that if we are last, we still get there at the same time.

anyway, i hate airports......

so the plane was one hour late. when we finally arrive at pisa, there is a shuttle bus to take us from the plane to the terminal. we missed the first one, and had to wait about 5 to ten minutes for the next. it might not sound like long, but it seemed long after such a day. that wasnt what we needed. when going through immigration, they waved everyone through just fine. then i showed the man my greek passport, and i had to wait for him to chekc it out; this was at least 10 minutes. it turns out that i was the last one allowed through the gates. i think the only reason that they let me thorugh was because i was with paola, who spoke italian, and had an italian passport, and said that i was with her.

anyway, i hate airports.......

one the way to stansted airport (july 14)

people observing silence for the bombings in london.


We are on the way to stansted airport from London. They have a convenient (if you look past the price, 14 pounds) train that goes straight there from one of the underground stations. Our plane leaves at 1830, but since we had to check out of our room at 1100, we just decided to go to the airport really early.

At 1200, there in the train station, and everywhere else around london (and even perhaps other places as well), there was a period of silence for two minutes in memorium for those who died in last thursday’s bombings. just about everyone in the train station stood still (there were a couple of people who apparently couldnt be delayed for those two minutes). because there is a sort of shopping mall throughout the station, a lot of people came out to the center of the station, and stood still. there were a lot of people. it reminded me of similar events that happened in new york city a few years earlier.

after that, everybody went about their business. and i had my own business to take care of, or so my body was telling me. so i told paola to stay with the bags for a few moments whilst i find a toilet and take care of such business. when i finally found one, i was astonished to learn that i had to pay 20 pence (about 40 cents) to use it! in any case, the feeling passed without my releaving myself. i didnt have 20p on my person anyway, so i would have been screwed had i really needed to use the facilities. imagine that, paying to use a public bathroom that is probably disgusting anyway!

comments on some art

A few comments about some of the art that I have seen here in London (Michaelangelo, and Herzog and DeMeuron). (the picture above is of the interior of the tate modern.)

I have two comments to make about Michaelangelo’s paintings in the National Gallery. First of all, I don’t think that he is the most realistic of the rennaissance painters. In fact, it seems that his paintings have more of a cartoonish appearance than those of Leonardo, or Raphael, and later, Ruebens. However, it is that quality that I like about them. The reason that I say that they have a cartoonish appearance is that they seem to glow. The figures in the paintings seems to have an aura about them such that they are radiating light. Perhaps this was diliberate in order to illustrate some sort of heavenly glow that the characters in the painting had.

A second thing about the Michaelangelo paintings is that they were both unfinished. This is not an uncommon theme in all of Michaelangelo’s works. That is something that I really like about his works. Some art historians suggest that none of his works are unfinished, and rather, that they are all complete. I like that idea. What it means is that he had an idea that he wanted to flesh out and realize. He began the work, and once he felt that the idea was presented well, and he expressed what he needed to, he stopped working on the piece. Why should he have to go on? For example, in the painting of Christ being taken down from the cross, it is the bottom of the painting that has so little painting completed. That means that among other things, the people, including Christ, do not have complete legs. Again, if one could, when looking at this painting, see what it is that Michaelangelo wanted to express, why would he need to paint legs?

Now a comment about the Tate Modern gallery. I have already said that I really like the architecture of the building designed by Herzog and DeMeuron. The outside of the building is rather bland. The shape of it is little more than a long rectangle with a tall rectangular tower in the front (that almost resembles a chimney for a factory), made with mostly red brick. On top of the long rectangular building is a glass rectangle that helps serve as a sky light. In any case, I was not very impressed with the exterior of the building. However, the interior blew me away. One sees, upon entering, that the long rectangle is almost empty. That is, there is a huge empty space in the building that serves as the lobby or reception area, and all the collection and exhibitions are displayed on the seven floors of space that are relegated to the left (long) side of the building, the side of the building that would be seen from the Millenium Bridge, and might be considered the front from the outside. It almost resembles a large movie studio stage within which some massive set is to be built. So the space is seven stories tall, and about a quarter of a mile (half a kilometer) long. Along the length of almost the entire ceiling of the building is a skylight (a window). There are also five long verticle windows that look like slits at either end that are about as tall as two thirds of the wall, and set closer to the top. The windows and the skylight provide all the light for inside the lobby, which is all concrete with steel beams supporting the walls. Dividing the lobby in half is a mezzanine that acts as the second floor. It allows you to stand in the middle of the great space and become overwhelmed with the emptiness. It also allows for the back half of the space to serve as an exhibition space (this is where they were exhibiting architectural projects by Herzog and DeMeuron). The space might also inspire artists to want to design and create something so large to use up all the verticle and horizontal space in this exhibition area (as it did me). An artist could create something truely massive!

old post

i originally began writing this on the plane from nyc to london on july 9.

7/9 incident on the airplane to london
i am writing this as i am on the plane. we are about an hour in from loading into the plance, and we are still on the ground. the captain informed us that there are about 12 or 13 planes ahead of us. so yet another reason that i really do not like airports.

in a previous posting, i wrote that i would not get too political, and it is not my intention to do so. that said, however, i will make observations of people’s behaviour, hopefully without much interpretation. within these observations, one can, perhaps, see what people really are like.

i have already said that we have shit seats. we had hoped that maybe some other seats might not be taken, and that we would be able to move there. no such luck. however, one person in the row ahead of us was lucky enough to get an aisle seat. she was basically the only person in the row of five seats. the flight attendant asked her if she would move, so that a family could sit there. after being told to move to a seat further up, she did not budge. however, once she saw that the people whom she was being asked to move for were behind her, she could not refuse a request to their face, and even gave the impression that she would gladly move. So, it is interesting to me how when one asks for help from afar, it is much easier to refuse to give help when not faced with another’s problems. However, when someone asks for help, and their need for help is in one’s face, it is difficult to refuse, and one would even gladly help when she sees the hardship that another suffers.

arriving in italy

we were in transit today for what seemed like forever. our plane left london an hour late, which is just one reason i hate airports. paola's dad picked us up, and now we are in bolgheri, tuscanny. it is after 1 am here, so i cant really see anything but the stars, which are very clear in this lightless neighborhood. tomorrow i am sure we will get a better view of everything.

london, day 4

tate modern interior (with paola)

so we are about finished with the london leg of our journey. today we went to the tate modern. there was, of course, lots of modern art, some good, some less so. paola was really inspired by a new work by photographer steve mccurry (who took that picture of the afghan girl with the big green eyes in 1984 for national geographic). i was really inspired by an exhibition of architectural models by herzog and demeuron (who re-designed the tate modern). paola will probably get more into photography when we get back, and i might start looking at schools to go to for architecture. we'll see what happens.

we also went to notting hill, along portobello street. the houses were all neatly colored, and there was a flea market that is a regular thing there. however, everything at the flea market was much too expensive, some skirts for £200 ($400), so we didnt get anything.

after that we went back to the hotel and took a nap, letting our bodies recover from all the walking that we have been doing the last few days.

as a final appraisal of london, i think that it is a very expensive city with good art and architecture. i really liked the modern architecture all around the place. but 3everything else was far too expensive, and i dont think that i will have a desire to come back here any time soon. that said, however, it was a good experience, and i dont regret it; its a city that i have wanted to see for a long time,and i am glad that i have now seen it (and glad that i am now leaving with some money still in my pocket). just to be clear, the underground (subway) was too expensive, as were all the restaurants (including mcdonalds) and food, and sleeping accomadations, well, forget it. so, all in all, i am glad that i came and saw some neat architecture, and now im glad im leaving.

tomorrow we fly into italy to meet up with paola's dad. we will also plan further parts of our trip from there, and begin posting photographs on this site of all the neat stuff we have seen.

london, day 3

part of the elgin marbles.


today we got a late start, as we have everyday. we dont wake up until about 11, and we get out of the house by 12. i think that we still might be on new york time. we are also out walking all day, so we are really worn out. one of two things will happen: either we will really get exhausted and not be able to make the whole tour without some significant rest days, or each day will only get us more and more in shape, and we will finally get used to all teh walking so by the end of the trip we will be fairly fit.

we started at the national gallery. the paintings were all neat. i especially liked the renaissance stuff by rafael (whom there was a lot of), leonardo (who had a big drawing, and a great scene of the virgin mother), and michaelangelo (whom i saw for the first time here, of christ being taken off the cross, and another). there was also a lot of great works by peter paul ruebens. there were three by caravagio (whom i typically like), but i was not as impressed with.

we then went to the british museum, and saw (among other things) the rosetta stone (which helped finally decipher hieroglyphics), and the elgin marbles, which were taken off the acropolis and brought to london. it was great to see those, and i took a lot of pictures.

seeing most of london by now, i think we are going to try to just hang out, and see what kind of vibe the town has. we are going to try to check out some pubs tonite and tomorrow, and hopefully not get overwhelmed by tourists, and see what real london is like. we'll see what happens.

to fight the expense of staying in london (and travelling through europe in general), i think that we are going to do somethign similar to the film 'supersize me,' where the guy eats nothing but mcdonalds for a month, and gained all kinds of weight and health problems. i will challenge those results, however, and i predict that paola and i will end up just fine, if not in better health than when we started the trip. of course, we will select proper food to eat, and we will be getting all kinds of exercise with walking.

london, day 2

tower bridge.


Swiss Re Building, 30 Mary St. Axe


today we ran all over town again. we finally got the hang of the tube (the underground subway). it was real easy, and since the city isnt all that big, everywhere we went was within a couple of minutes. we started by checking to see if we could catch a play. well, tomorrow they sell front row tickets for 10 pounds at 10 am. however, we figure we have to be early to stand in line, etc. after figuring that, living in new york city, we dont really go to see any plays, i dont think that we will do any here in london. it would be a bit ridiculous to fly 3500 mile to watch a play that we could watch in the city where we live (or even better, rent the dvd and watch it at home).

we walked across london bridge, and went to the tower of london. it really isnt a tower, but rather a small fort/ castle. they have the crown jewels there too, and they looked neat, i guess (i dont really like jewelry, and i like even less the idea of people being famous and powerful by birth (thats why i thought nobody likes or respects paris hilton)). all the same, it was neat. the tour got me interested in british history, and i intend to study up on it when i get home.

from there we walked up to the city of london (which is just its own neighborhood, rather than a different city. its like the financial district, or downtown. in any case, i got to see teh norman foster building that looks like a fabrege egg, and i was impressed. i also got to see the lloyds building, which is basically across the street. that is another building that impressed me. it was designed by richard rogers, who is a big architect. i think tha the worked on the pompidou center in paris with my favorite architect, renzo piano (whose work i intend to see a lot of in italy). the style of the building was basically with the insides out; that is, there are all kinds of pipes and stuff outside of the building, even the elevator is outside the building, which has clear walls, so we could see people going up and down. it was closed to the public, though, so we couldnt go in.

we also went to st pauls cathedral, which is a big church with a big dome, and all that. from there, we walked across the millenium bridge (by norman foster) and saw the outside of the tate modern.

basically , in these first two days, we saw all the buildings and outdoor sites that we wanted to. so we should spend the next couple of days inside some museums. we plan to go to the british, which is considered good because they stole all the statues from the acropolis in greece (and lots of other artifacts from a lot of other cultures that the british conquered). we also want to go to the tate modern and national gallery.

again, i wish i could show more pictures, but i have to come to internet cafes to post (i will get some pictures of this stuff online when i get to italy, i hope (if those hotels dont also lie about having internet access in the rooms)). i hope that all is going well with everyone out there. if you want, you can leave comments under these posts, or email me at georgetsouris.com. i appreciate the emails that i have been getting from my friends. we love you all!

first day in london

yesterday we arrived in london. we went on the train from heatrow to paddington station, which ws a special airport express. so from the first moments here, i realized how expensive this town is. from jfk to anywhere in new york on public transportation is about $7. from heathrow to this one station was 14 pounds, which is about 28 dollars. then after a short walk (made longer because we were lugging our luggage), we got to our hotel. the room could not fit two beds, it was so small. i suppose that is the way things are in europe. well, with paola's panache, she got us a much bigger and better room (though we still had to stay in the first one last nite). when we got there, i took a nap, and paola called her parents. i slept for about two hours, but she did not; in fact, she didnt even sleep on the plane, so by the end of the day, she was going on about 24 hours with little to no sleep.

in any case, that didnt stop us from exploring. after i got up, we decided to go for a walk and explore what we could on foot. we went into soho, leicester square, and walked along oxford blvd. it was cool, lots of shops, a neat park, and the like (we also walked a bit through hyde park (which is like central park in new york, but in london)). we then saw the outside of the national gallery (it was closed) and some other square, with a big obelisk to napoleon. we walked down from there and saw some neat building with a neat fountain in front, but dont know what it was called. from there we walked to westminster abbey and parliment, and saw big ben, which didnt seem so big. the london eye is also there, which is a big ferris wheel designed by a favorite architect of mine, norman foster. we decided not to get on, though. from there we could also see another norman foster building that i want to go to (but seems far away from what i can see) that is shaped like a fabrege egg.

i already had a run-in with the locals when a cheap store owner wouldnt give me my money back for some shit i bought. it totally ruined the mood for me for the whole of london. (he won, and i didnt get my money back, but the way.) but this morning we got our new room, and we are starting fresh, so i feel a good vibe about. we plan to see london tower, and all some more stuff. i still want to see the millenium bridge (another norman foster), and perhaps a play ('death of a salesman' by arthur miller is my pick, but we'll see what's available, plus cheap).

also, the hotel lied and we dont get internet in our room, so i cant post pictures from yesterday. when we get to italy, i will modify these postings with pictures of london and us (i am at an internet cafe right now, feeding the interests of my fans).

at the airport

today we fly out of jfk, to london heathrow. being at the airport right now, i am able to tell you how much i dislike airports. i feel that everyone (who works here) is against us. for example, when we came to the gate, we expected to get something to eat (seeing as how we came early, to get past all of the security in good time). there was an au bon pain, with two salads, and one sandwich to choose from. there was also a small bar, from which (against my better judgement) we did not get anything. we did finally get the tuna sandwich (which did not really taste like tuna, but rather bad imitation fish meat) and a salad with chicken in it; it was supposed to be thai chicken, but they did not have the thai dressing, so it was impossible to think of it as a thai salad (i ended up using ranch).

paola and i are trying to pass the time by identifying the people who might be snobby enough to be in first class. (by the way, we got the worst possible seats on the plane; there are people on either side of us.) we saw an older guy who we could both agree on: he looked like he used to be a military general, short with a protrouding belly, and wearing a cap with plastic netting on the back that identified him as at least a supporter of soldiers, and had lots of patches and medals on it.

in any case, they are now boarding the first class passengers. we should be boarding in about half an hour now since i think we are fourth class passengers (they make sure the livestock and pets get boarded before us).

paola's hard work

like i said before, paola has worked diligently to make sure that we have a place to stay where ever we go in europe. of course, this itinerary is very tentative, since we dont know how long we might want to stay in one place or the other. see, one thing that's missing is that we might not be able to make amsterdam by the 6th of august to catch dancevalley. we'll see what happens. if you look at the picture, the underlined city is where we will be during the days listed to the right.

Recent events

apparently some people that that it would be a good idea to explode some bombs around london. having given up political concerns myself, i won't comment on my own opinion, but i do think that it is a tragic thing when anyone in the world dies.

we were thinking of rescheduling, or re-routing our flight, but it would be much too inconvenient (and too expensive), so we are deciding to go along as planned, which would, i presume, make blair and bush proud. we were worried that the vibe of london would be a bit drab due to thursday's events, but contrariwise, i feel that it might be neat to experience what it is like over there right now.

Pre-planning

so i am not very good at planning trips, let alone long trips as this one will be. i dont know any of the dates that we will be in any of the countries that i hope to be, nor any of the places that we will be sleeping. we'll see what happens, but i am sure that everything will work out just fine. in any case, paola is very good at these sorts of things, so she is taking the initiative to address a lot of these sorts of issues. she might be called, as they say, my better half; certainly i cant do the work that she's doing. in fact, if it were up to me, we would probably end up sleeping in the street, which might be fun in theory, but i'm pretty sure even i wouldnt like that. i am confident that any place that we stay will be pretty nice. so basically, its a good thing that she is with me (for everything) or i might just loose it.

First post

Today is Thursday nite, and i am going to london on saturday. i will stay there for a bit, then go throughout europe to see what i can find out about the place, the people, and myself. I plan to go to London in England; Florence, Venice, and Rome in Italy; Athens, Argos, and Santorini in Greece; Berlin in Germany; Amsterdam in Holland; Paris in France; and Barcelona in Spain. Nothing is really set in stone, though, and some of those places may not be visited, and others might be. I should be gone from July 9 through August 24; this seems to be about a month and a half, and hopefully i will get to see everything that i want to, though i am sure that there will be those things that i miss (perhaps for the next trip). we'll see how it goes.