Well kids, I’m back on the mainland. I intended to blog while I was away, but my internet time was a bit more limited than I intended. That, and half of it was on a French keyboard. Not condusive to blogging.
Anyway….here are some highlights, before I get down to the details over the next week or so. If I weren’t so darn lazy, I would bullet this…but you shall have to settle for bolding.
Best bang for our buck (something we had to pay to see) The Louvre. Eight Euros a person, to see some serious art. I did see the Mona Lisa, since I was there and all. Just as unimpressive as I expected. My favorite was teh French sculpture…some really amazing stuff. I am sad that I could not find the French impressionists. I really, really wanted to see them. But, search as we may, we could not seem to find them. The place is isanely huge.
Favorite place in Rome The Cat Sanctuary. It was free. It is a site of ancient ruins, that were excavated early in the last century. They date to a couple of centuries BC. The animal shelter spays/neuters them, vaccinates them, and lets them live in the ruins. They have adoption hours each day, when you can go down into the ruins and selct a kitty to bring home. Seriously freaking cool. We visited it twice.
Weirdest Tourist Attraction The Crypts of the Capuchin Monks in Rome. There is nothing I could say that would properly prepare you for what you would see. Remember gluing various pasta onto cigar boxes or tissue boxes to make a lovely gift for Mother’s day? Now imagine that you were doing that in a room, with bones. Human bones. There were even light fixtures made out of bones. Throw in a few mummified monks, and a painting of Jesus, and there you go. I am still trying to wrap my head around it. They were real human bones. Real ones. Everywhere. Really.
Cutest non-feline thing I saw (and favorite thing I saw on the French metro) On our way back to our hotel to get a taxi to the airport, a girl gets on the metro. She has a Beige and white rat sitting on her shoulder, which she is nuzzling with her nose and whispering in its ear. As the metro starts up, he crawls down her arm, and mestles himself in where her arms are folded. When she got off, he nestled himself at the back of her neck in her scarf. Seriously sweet, and cute. I sort of wanted my own rat to ride the metro with.
Cutest Feline thing Flat-faced orange and whtie kitty in Bram. Seriously, it hurt a little. That’s how cute the kitty was. It was a little ridiculous. I could barely form words. If he wouldn’t have been with his four brothers/sisters on a roof top terrace, I would have catnapped him and brought him home.
Best travel guides in a foreign land Click and NNS. They showed us things we would not have tracked down otherwise. They gave us tips for getting around and buying/ordering things in Rome, intoduced us to Gelato (which I am seriously craving some Limoncello gelato right now). They gave us a place to crash and made us feel right at home. Seroiusly, we owe them. Not to mention they are just a blast to hang out with. Forgive me for being cheesy for a moment, but we are blessed to have such amazing people as friends.
Travel tip of the day We learn the hard way so you don’t have to. If you are traveling by train, and are in a car other than your own when the train stops, get back to your own car as quickly as possible. Make sure you are sitting in your own seat with your travel companions before the train starts moving. Otherwise you may find that the train runs out of cars before you get to yours, and you are on your way to an entirely different city than your traveling companion, and the car you were in. Your traveling companion won’t know where you could have gone because while you were stopped, they hooked your car up to a new train. You may be set back in your travel by a day. Seriously.
Lackluster airline of the year Northwest Airlines. I realize that part of this is my fault for traveling via an airline that has two unions striking, and Karma was reminding me of this. But, seriously. I am grateful that I made it over the ocean and back relatively unscathed.
Most daring travel feat for a pasty white girl Topless sunbathing on the Mediterranean. Yup. I did it. I can say I was subathing topless on the French Riviera. Two coats of SPF 55 Sunblock, and I survived it. I even got ogled by at least one old man. I also swam in the mediterranean. It was very salty. I did wear my top for that, because the water was chill and I wanted an extra layer on my girl parts.
Well, I am running out of steam at the moment, so I will have to return with more later. We will also get our pictures uploaded for viewing.
Aw, thanks for the nice words! We were happy to have you guys–it was lots of fun. I hope the cruise was great, once you recovered from the TRAIN TRAUMA. Oh my god. I can’t imagine. Oh, and as your fellow pasty white girl, I also can’t imagine topless sunbathing! Way to go–you’ve got more guts than me, that’s for sure. 🙂
Nice look
Nice