its like whatevers

Paris (round 2) Part Deux - End of our EuroTrip

2010-07-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

Back in good ol' Paris. Vins had us over for aperitif and then dinner one evening since it was our last week and we were staying at our other friend Laeti's place. He said that it was going to be special and not to bring anything. We were excited to see what he had in mind.

If you go back to our very first post you'll see this same photo, but 2 months earlier the trees in Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise were all bare. We really don't get true seasons back home so it was nice to see the green trees.

So Vins special treat was this, Foie Gras and champagne. It's a French delicacy meaning "fat liver". Basically a duck or goose is force-fed and the liver becomes VERY enlarged until it is ready for us consumers. Some countries the farming of this food is illegal due to to animal rights.
Out of the jar and ready to eat. Elaina and I couldn't wait to dig in.
Poppin' bottles and now ready to dig it!
Vins recomended that we try it with a bit of jam if we wanted. I prefered it without the jam so I could taste all of the liver. It has a butter taste unlike any liver I've tried before. The consistantcy was that of a hard boiled egg yoke, really interesting.
The gang after aperitif, Me, Elaina, Vins, Natalie, and Olivier.
Olivier firing up his beast.
Olivier had to get home so the remaining four of us went out to eat. I had a French style stew and Elaina had some fish over rice. Both very good!
Now on to dessert. Pistachio crème brûlée and a HUGE cream puff with chocolate syrup and ice cream. MMMmmmmm. Great dinner Vins!!!
A couple days later we went to the Catacombes. The Catacombes are an underground graveyard for 6 million Parisians. The underground tunnels stretch for miles but only about 1.5 miles are open to tourists.
After entering the building you immediately take a spiral staircase 130 steps below the street surface. You end up close to 4 stories BELOW the metro. You can feel the air get thin and moist as you descend.
Walking along the tunnels we came across a natural fresh water well. We made a wish and tossed a couple euro in.
Since there are so many people and not enough space all of the bones are just arranged and line the walls of the tunnels. Yes, those are real human skulls and bones. They are stacked about 5' high and 6-7' deep the ENTIRE length of the catacombs.
Looks like someone got a crack on the head.
Nice design made of human bones.
So another evening later that week. We went to a football (soccer) game. We had wanted to catch one our entire trip but we never got around to it. Olivier offered to take us to a Paris match and we were SUPER excited. Olivier even let me borrow one of his Paris scarfs.
All set to go!
Cheering on the team as the players enter the field. That's my white arm.
LETS-GO-PARIS!
The fans here are second to none. No fans for ANY other sport can even compare. They are truely passionate about their football.
Robot had a great time
After the match, the snack bar didn't sell out their sandwhichs so they were giving them away. You don't get that back at home.
Someone's hungry! Thanks for showing us a great game Olivier!!!
At the market, what a good little gaurd dog.
This is the way a refrigerator is supposed to look!
Fresh baked pie!
Well, the time has come. Our trip of a lifetime is coming to an end. We hoped the volcano would keep us longer but no such luck. We're back to where it all started, the Paris airport. We're not happy campers. That's all of our luggauge, we've been living out of those for two months and they did a great job.
Thanks for the ride to the airport Vins. You were such a great host and we can't thank you enough for everything. We can't wait to see you here in the U.S. soon!
Elaina is actually crying in the airport because we had to go home. I told her to can it because we hadn't gone through security yet and I didn't want them to think I was kidnapping her.
On the plane now and still not happy to be leaving and not happy about the 10 hours of flight ahead of us.
In London grabbing some snacks at a quick lay over. Robot was hungry.
Time to catch some ZZZ's. Are we there yet?!?!
Elaina was going to drink her sorrow away until we landed in LAX.

All in all it was a whirlwind of a trip. We can't beleive that it's over and now we are planning our next adventure. First things first, we need to get jobs and then it'll be off to Asia for a short tour maybe next year.

We are so blessed to be able to experience all of this and have such great friends abroad that were there to help us. Not to mention the family back home that made it possible to leave in the first place. We missed everyone and though U.S. life is SO different we are glad to be home and see everyone we love. Thanks to everybody that followed our blog as we traveled the world. The adventure is not over and the blog will always be updated with our everyday life so stay tuned and we'll see you all soon!

Love, Elaina and Mike

Montbéliard France

2010-05-18T21:27:00.001-07:00

Us getting trapped in Paris was a blessing in disguise. For one, we get to stay in Paris longer. And two, we were invited to a movie screening by our good friend Vins (we stayed with the first time in Paris). Vins is a talented independant film director and producer. A short film of his was chosen to be shown in Montbéliard France, about 5 hours by car east/south of Paris. So the theatre owner invited Vins to come and speak before the screening. Vins asked us if we wanted to tag along with him and of course we accepted! The cool thing is, he has two reels of the film, one in French only and one in French with English subtitles so he brought the reels with subtitles just for us!

This gave Elaina and I a great opportunity to see some of France's beautiful contryside that most tourists probably would never see. We drove through Champagne, France were champagne was first introduced. They own the rights to the word so most of the world's champagne comes from here or they get paid just for the use of the term. If not, it can only be called sparkling wine. We also passed near the city of Dijon, France and you guessed it. There are mustard fields EVERYWHERE!

We stopped along the side of the road for a quick lunch. When I say side of the road I mean it, we just pulled off to the shoulder like in Mexico.
Now in Montbéliard some time later and the city is very small and quiet. Just what you would expect small French town to be. NO ONE over the age of 30 speaks English at all so we were lucky to have Vins once again.

Here's the trailer to his film, Vivre, jusqu'au bout, it translates to Living Until the End. Elaina and I were really impressed with the film and thouroughly enjoyed it.

Since Vins was the guest director he got to choose a film to be shown after his short as a double feature. He chose the American independent film White Lightnin'. He wanted something totally different from his film style but still wanted to expose the viewers to something different and probably something they would never see on their own. I highly recommend this film as well if you can find it. A little dark, but here's Vins speaking before the screening.
We were invited back to the home of the theatre owner. He was a really nice guy and opened is cool house to all of us. He refused to let us pay for any food or drinks either. Everyone was really nice. This is his place in the foreground, behind his house is a sweet castle!
At the screening we met up with one of Vins long time childhood friends Eli. I first met Eli about 5 years ago here in California as they were touring with his band The Hellbats. They are an awesome band with a really cool style. Since we were so far from Paris and it was late already we were planned to stay with Eli at his place just 20 minutes from the town we were currently in. He lives in a cottage style home that's a couple hundred years old!

The next morning we were greeted with the usual awesome coffee we always had. But we got to have some of the best sausage. Yeah, that's the sausage cooking in Eli's wood burning stove that's built into the wall INSIDE the house. No matter what I try to do here at home I can't get sausage like that to taste that good!
This is Eli's dog. He looks like an old man and he's a slobber machine.
Even the French dogs like wine.
They may have this here in the states but we've never seen it. Rum and Coke pre-mixed in a can ready to drink.
This is the outside of Eli's place. There is a stream and pond that you can fish from.
Just down the little road is Eli's uncle's home. I really like the architecture and it was a total standout in comparision to the surrounding homes.
Elaina wasn't feeling good this day. She saw these flowers and liked them a lot.
So I picked one when no one was looking. She felt a little better for a short while.
Getting ready to leave back to Paris and the 5 hour drive. Here's Me, Eli, Vins, and Elaina. Thanks again for everything Eli and hopefully we'll see you soon here in the U.S.!!!
Home sweet home, back in Paris now later that night. Yup, that's a water bottle filled with piss. It's good to be back to what's familiar to us.
.

Paris (round 2) Part Un

2010-05-17T23:59:00.001-07:00

So we're at the train station in Amsterdam and the place is PACKED, it's like a madhouse and we don't know why? So we booked our Paris train and asked what was going on? They said something about a volcano in Iceland. We were like, whatever, got our tickets for tomorrow and went back to our hotel. We jumped on line and found out that this "volcano" is actually a big deal (no need to fill anyone in on HOW big a deal it was at the time). There was nothing we could do so the next day we just made our way to Paris.

We had a stop off in Brussels so time for more Belgium beer! Don't forget the Pringles either, the 'Paprika' flavor is the best but not available in the U.S. They're gonna take over the world one can at a time. In Mexico they even had fish flavored Pringles.

So we finally arrive back in Paris and it was a bit of a homecoming. Although it's a foreign country, it's so familiar to us now the second time around. This time we stayed with another Parisian friend of ours, Laeti (pronounced Letty). When we arrived she had an aperitif waiting for us, beer and snacks!

After the beers and snacks we hit the bar. Here's Elaina and I along with Laeti's boyfriend Arthur. We had a great time and then Leati told us that she would be staying at Arthur's place so we would have her flat all to ourselves! Again we had our own place in Paris. How nice!!!

After the bar (and a few pitchers) we went our own ways on the metro. See you guys later!

Back at the flat we felt at home. We did have a job however, we had to take care of the REAL owner of the flat, Bebert (beh-bear). He's a cool kitty and very personable, he would lick my head in the morning and a couple mornings I woke to him kneading my stomach as he laid on my chest.

One reason Elaina was glad to be back in France. She's addicted to these and even ordered some online from Europe to be shipped into the U.S. It's a hazelnut yogurt type of desert.

So since we're on the last leg of our trip and we've done most of the "touristy" things, we ate back at home a lot more. Elaina usually took care of dinner and I made breakfast.

Another night Leati and Arthur invited us to a show. It was a hardcore show along La Siene. This is something that Paris is beginning to implement on their metro system. It's a protective plexi tunnel with doors that protect riders from falling onto the tracks as the metro approaches. It's a little funny looking but it does the trick.

Almost at the show, we walked through the national library. It's a new library that's designed to look like open books standing on end. There are four buildings total and pretty cool looking.

Now at the show. The venue is IN the belly of an old tugboat. This will be the first show for Elaina and I inside of a boat. The boat never leaves the dock but you can feel it move.

I snapped this walking down the stairs to where the band was. This is pretty much sea level so while you watch the band you are below the water.

If you don't know, it's okay to drink alcohol on the streets in Europe. So between bands we would walk off the boat, buy a 12er of beer, pound it, and get back on the boat before the next band! That's way better than buying beers on the boat for 10euro ($15usd).

Leati's boyfriend Arthur works for Road Runner Records so he got us in for free. We met a few of their friends and everyone was really cool and spoke english really well.

Back on the boat and time for another band.

A French hardcore pit looks just like an American hardcore pit. There was lots of 'karate' going on (hardcore fans know what I'm talking about) so I jumped in and gave them some American Circle Pit flavor. I didn't know Elaina followed me up to the front to take some pictures.

On the way home after the show. This is Arthur's friend that was going the same direction as us. Cool guy.

The next morning we were woken up by the gardeners so I had to take this picture. It's hard to tell but there are no Mexicans to be found! They're all Arabs and Blacks.

Well today we finally received word that our flight home would be canceled. There was no rescheduled flight or any idea on when flights would commence. ALL of Europe is shut down and NO ONE is getting in or out. Luckily for us we had a place to stay as long as we needed since Laeti had now left Arther's place in Paris and went to visit her parents in Vichy. She told us she'd see us sometime in May if we were still stranded as a joke. Later we found that we were rescheduled to fly home eight days later! So what do you do when you're STUCK in Paris? MORE SITE SEEING!!!

The next day we went to Montmarte. It's the highest hill in Paris where you can see the entire city. But first we need to stop for a Grand Marnier and Nutella crepe! See! She's actually pouring Grand Marnier on the crepe!!!

It's hard to tell but it's a pretty good hike getting to the top. The view is worth it though.

Now at the top and what a view! Robot got a free ride to the top so he wasn't even out of breath. The sky is a little grey and hazy due to the volcano ash slowly blowing over Paris.

Hey, there's the Eiffel Tower!

Now the walk down.

I guess this doll was being bad so it got thrown through the window.

On our first tour of Paris we never got to see the Eiffel Tower up close at night. Now that we have this second chance to see things we missed, we had to go. It looks really cool at night and you can see it from almost anywhere in Paris.

At the top of the hour the tower lights up for five minutes with thousands of strobe lights. Everyone OOO's and AAWWEE's once it starts lighting up.

We didn't OOO or AAWWEE.

The photos don't do the strobe lights justice. Here's a little video of them in action.

The following day we just walked the town. No rush, no hustle and bustle. Just normal everyday life when you 'live' in Paris. What should we do tomorrow?

Amsterdam I love you!

2010-04-30T22:46:00.001-07:00

So we're finally here. Of course this was a must stop on our trip and we planned for it to be towards the end so we don't blow all our money on the "attractions" of the city. The city is everything you think it is and then some. Liberal Europe at it's finest.

In the center of the city there is this slogan, "I AMsterdam". It's all over the place and pretty catchy. Elaina is in there somewhere it's kinda dark though.

Amsterdam has as many canals as Venice in Italy but that's not their claim to fame. What is Amsterdam famous for? I can't seem to remember. Here's a cool building. Here there is no "traditional" Dutch food so you can eat anything from Mexican, to Japanesse, to Thai. Chips are huge over here, the British ones. We couldn't get enough of them and they really hit the spot after all the coffee.
This place only sells chips, it's called Chipsy King.
They we're good and HOT!
We walked by this tattoo parlor everyday and it was always closed. How do they stay in business?
Now I remember what Amsterdam is famous for, their agriculture!
Here's a view from the front of our hotel. It's one block from the redlight district. Tons of coffee shops everywhere. We got lost almost everynight coming home and we don't know why?
Since there's no Dutch cuisine. I guess it's beer and burger time. Of course we had white beer!
I told Elaina to get these but she didn't want them, they wouldn't stay on her face.
In the redlight district and another coffee shop. Whenever you see windows with redlights, those are prostitutes and it's totally legal. These were some of the prettiest women we saw in Europe our entire tip. NO LIE.
That's me going pee. They have these through out the city. It's just a metal sheild and a drain in the ground. You pee while people are just walking by, you can see them and they can see you. No time for stage fright here. The city comes and pressure washes them each night.
The large building in the background is the main train staion. In the foreground is the water bus that'll take you to your hotel for a small fee. A cathedral across from the train station.
Pop Surrealism or Lowbrow art... Some of the type of art Elaina is into was loaded in this store/art gallery. She bought a book with works by artist Joe Ledbetter (Los Angeles artist).
My kinda of place!
Elaina really wanted to get a tattoo so she did it. It came out really nice and will forever be a souvenir of our trip. Amsterdam was the only city we were that had tattoo shops. Elaina had the itch to get another and found a small open space on her arm for a new tattoo.
This is a piece by Joe Ledbetter in the book Elaina purchased aaaaaaand this is her new tattoo. A cuddly zombie bunny. A view of one of the canals. It was a nice day this day. Here's another water bus.
This was our second favorite coffee shop. Good times!
More chips please! I don't know why they call the place mannequin piss though, Elaina seemed to like it. YUCK!!!
They were announcing everywhere that the city cleaners were on strike so the city was "less clean than normal" I guess that's a nice way of saying DIRTY AS HELL.
Another canal This was our favorite coffee shop. They had the best hot chocolate, Elaina couldn't get enough of it!
More city
This was our stupor home each night.
One last view of Amdsterdam before we leave.
We loved Amsterdam so much and we didn't want to leave. We were like kids in a candy store here but we knew we had to go back to Paris for a couple days before coming home. Little did we know that plans were about to change.

/

/

/

/

/

Bern Switzerland

2010-04-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

So now we're on our way to Bern Switzerland. Bern is about 2 hours by car from Visp so we had a nice scenic drive. I wish I would taken a picture but Rolf has a sweet Audi S6 wagon that made the trip that much better.
Maybe he was driving a little too fast because this guy showed up behind us. Luckily they we'ren't interested in us.

Along the way we stopped at this castle, Chateau Chillon. It's on it's own pennisula so it can not be over taken by land or sea. It's a museum now but we didn't go in. Elaina and I are all museumed out.

Now in Bern, Rolf wanted to take us to this shopping mall. Not to shop though, he said that the architecture had to be seen and he was right. It was totally new and fresh, especially for a shopping mall.

This is a major highway that drives underneath and out the other side of the mall. I was curious as to who mantains the tunnel? The mall owner or the city highway department? I know, I'm a nerd.

Here's the interior, it's a staggered 3 and 4 level mall. You can't walk more than 50 yards without going up or down an escaltor to another tier. This is very appealing to the eye and to the mind it makes you lose track of how far you've really walked. The old long straight malls that we have in the states are intimidating to the mind and not very inviting to walk along. This one makes you want to know, "what's next".

They even have trees inside!

Elaina likes the ceiling treatment in this store. Try and ignore my big head.

This is where you put your garbage while walking along the mall. There is a slot for every type that you may have, plastic, paper, glass, batteries, and food waste. Very clever as it also keeps trash cans out of the walking path.

Elaina and MORE chocolate

Now we're in downtown Bern walking the city, it's very chilly this day. Here is the capital building, this is where all of Switzerland's congress sits. Cool fountain too.

Some people playing chess outside of a cafe. They don't know each other they just all jump in and create teams.

This is probably the nicest train station we've seen on our trip. It has a little shopping area and eateries. See those blue and purple lights in the background?

Bern used to have stone walls barricading the entire city during the first world war. They kept these walls in tact and now they are the structural walls of the train station. They highlight portions of the wall through the station, it's a nice historic touch to such a modern and contemporary building.

This is the Einstein House. It was closed for tours but this is where he came up with his famous formula of relativity, E = MC2.

Along the main street in Bern there are tons of these little shops that are under ground. The doors open up and you just walk down.

At the end of the street there is this HUGE clock tower, it's not only a clock, but a coo-coo-clock. Very Swiss.

Elaina couldn't control herself! I refused to buy it for her!!!

On our way to dinner over looking the river.

At one end of the bridge they have bears on display because that's what Bern means, bear. This bear must be upset, he uprooted all of his trees they planted for him.

This was the bridge we were just on.

Time for a little drink before dinner. PROST!

Elaina and Benita really got along well like I knew they would. They couldn't communicate with each other very well but they somehow found a way to make fun and laugh at Rolf and I whenever they could. They were always laughing?! Elaina is a firm believer that 'smiling' is a universal language, she and Benita used it often.

I wanted to order the sausage again but I had to resist. Elaina couldn't help herslf though.

Big beers are always welcome. No time for picture taking, must drink!

After dinner back at Rolf and Benita's place we looked at their wedding pictures which came out really nice. She made us these after dinner drinks. Fresh strawberries with a sugared rim and a grappa alcohol made by Benita's father with grapes from Rolf's vineyard! Elaina and I need to learn how they do it. They make everything themselves and they do it WELL!

The next morning they had another great spread for us. The food is just sitting there because I'm still in the bathroom getting ready. Rolf was worried we weren't going to make our trian because we were leaving Switzerland this morning. Sorry Rolf!

We made our train on time with a little jogging and heavy breathing. Rolf and Benita were so good to us we can't wait to come back and see their new place once it is built in a few years. Here they are bidding us farewel.

Robot really liked them too!

This was the last time we saw Rolf and Benita, they ran along side the train as we took off, how sweet! We'll miss you guys!!!

Next stop, AMSTERDAM!!!

Visp Switzerland

2010-04-25T17:35:00.001-07:00

Our next city is Visp. This is where Rolf and Benita are from. They live in Bern due to work but both of their families are from here. They just purchased some land in Visp and will be building their own home here. In switzerland, when you buy a house or land, you live there forever with your kids and pass it down.

We started by walking the little downtown area. It was a Sunday so pretty much everything was closed. This thing was on the sidewalk so I told Elaina to get inside of it. I told her to stay there but she followed us.
Here's another thing, all the posts rotated and were padded. Elaina really liked running through them. Can't you tell? I have no idea why her back foot is all retarded though.

Next they took us to the church where they were married just a couple years ago. It's called Burgerkirche and it's beautiful.

More walking around the town.

After site seeing the town we went to Benita's parents house. Her parents are so nice and so welcoming. They had quite a dinner spread setup for us. We had swiss cheese fondue (not the kind with the holes) with bread, potatoes, pineapple, and plums. To quench our thirsts, fondue wine which went perfectly with our fondue meal. It was so good!

My mouth waters everytime I look a this photo.

All of us enjoying dinner. Benita was kind enough to play photographer so she's missing in some of these.

All gone! NO!!!

But the night is not over. They busted out this stuff, it's aged prune liquor. It's pretty much the same thing as Italian Grappa and boy does it have a kick!

It even has this sweet swivel action to help you pour it because the bottle is HUGE!

We drank from these one-off, hand blown glasses. The handle acts as a straw, how convenient!

Thinking it over

PROST!

Elaina looks a little worried here.

Okay, so this was taken late into the evening (at least 3-5 shots later). A picture hanging on the wall looked a little crooked to some of us but the others were saying it was straight. I still think it was fine to this day.

Robot made some Easter friends

The view from the bathroom window. I looked out and thought to myself, "hey those are the Swiss Alps right there".

As many of you know, I'm not the "fastest" in the morning, Benita and her mother made us an incredible breakfast. Eggs, sliced meats, cheese, juice, milk, yogurt, coffee, cereals. bread, jam. So much to choose from. I was still down stairs getting ready though.

Here's Rolf waiting for me to be ready so everyone can eat. I'm sure they were all starving.

This is home made apricot jam made by Benita's mom from their tree. I wanted to steal some and bring it home with us. Elaina ate like 3 slices!!!

Outside getting ready to leave Visp with Benita's mom. Her dad designed and built this house himself. It's really nice and you can see the attention to detail.

Benita like the rest of her family is very creative and crafty. She sculpted these birds herself.

And these eggs, she didn't make the robot though.

The four of us in front of her parent's house.

This is the old part of Visp.

Then we stopped by Rolf's mother's house where Rolf grew up. She wasn't home though.

Here's the view of the Visp valley from her balcony.

Rolf almost forgot to mention he has a cellar in the basement of his mom's house where he makes his own wine. SWEET!!!

His cellar even has a little bar in it.

The old school press he uses.

This is the grape vineyard just outside his mom's place. He plants and cultivates all the grapes himself. For him it's just a hobby, sweet hobby!

More shacks on the mountain side. These were used by farmers for the animals in the winter. They could find refuge here if they didn't make it back to the farm house before it got too cold.

Now we are on to Bern, where Rolf and Benita live.

Brig/Zermatt Switzerland

2010-04-25T15:20:00.000-07:00

Our next stop, Switzerland. I (Mike) have a good friend here so we had to stop and visit while in Europe. His name is Rolf, he was an exchange student with us back home about 8 years ago or so. Since then he has gotten married to his lovely wife Benita and we couldn't wait to see them and Switzerland. They met us in Brig, it was chilly and REALLY beautiful. Yeah we have mountains back home like Big Bear and Mammouth but here they have the Swiss Alps, ever hear of them?
Once Rolf and Benita loaded us into the car they took us to another tram station. We were going to Zermatt, this is the city closest to the Matterhorn. We had to go on a special tram because the incline is so great that the tram needs gears instead of wheels to lock onto the track.

We really started to climb. Brig's elevation is just over 2,200 ft and when we finally got up to Zermatt we were at 5,600 ft. Our ears were poping the entire time. Along the way we passed several little towns and villages.

This is the name of the actual town! It's reffered to by locals as Christmas town. It really does exist boys and girls!!!

Now up at Zermatt, it's a cool little ski resort town with a great view of the Matterhorn. Now it's getting a little cold. It's 2pm and it's 6 celsius (42 degrees), that might not sound too cold but after you factor in the wind chill it's even colder! After walking the town a little, Rolf and Benita took us to lunch. The food was great and Rolf had a traditional Swiss dish called Raclette. It was really good, we had to be tourist and take pictures.

I'm sure you can all figure out which dish I ordered!!!

Then we walked more of the town. These little shacks were used by the original farmers back in the day. They would dry and age their beef here. The buildings were placed on piers to keep the animals from getting to the meat. The town has left a lot of these all throughout the alps as historical pieces.

Rolf and Benita were planning on taking us up to the Matterhorn in those big red hanging baskets. The weather wasn't cooperating though so we had to pass. It was a good thing because I was a little scared. Here's the Matterhorn, year round its covered with snow. Its A LOT bigger than the one we have at Disneyland.

More little shacks

This water is crystal clear and ice cold from the glacier! I told Elaina I would give her One Swiss Franc if she jumped in but she refused and then reminded me she was currently holding all the money.

All that cold water and cold weather. Now it's time for a cold beer!

Everyone knows that Swiss chocolate is the best. Elaina LOVES chocolate so she was in heaven and had to stop in every chocolate shop we walked by. I don't even want to think about how much we spent on chocolate or how much she still has stashed in her luggage.

This is Rolf's wife Benita, she is so nice and so sweet. Her english is better than she lets on. Elaina and Benita really hit it off well dispite the minor language barrier.

The four of us, that's Rolf. They were great hosts to us!

We're leaving Brig and Zermatt to make our way to Visp Switzerland.

Milan

2010-04-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

After Venice we went to Milan. It wasn't an original stop on our tour but we needed to kill a couple days before heading up to Switzerland. Elaina caught a cold towards the end of Venice so she wasn't feeling to good for Milan. She was pretty much sniffling and coughing the entire time but she was a trooper.

Walking the town we saw this little guy. It's pretty much a scooter with one wheel in the front and two wheels at the rear. It has handle bars to steer instead a wheel and a 50cc engine. Yes, that is a Ferrari emblem on the hood.
This is the Duomo, it's a HUGE cathedral and looks really cool.
Robot and Elaina checking it out. A couple was trying to capture the moment of their special wedding day in front of the Duomo. Then Elaina jumped in the background of their photo. NICE!
Just around the corner from the Duomo there is the Galleria Vittorio Emanuel II. It's essentially an outdoor shopping/cafe area that has a glass roof over it. Also, pretty cool because the ceiling is so high you really feel like you are outside. It's in the shape of a T and the ends are open as well.
After the galleria Elaina had to take a gelato break.
The city is pretty busy. Since it's in the north, it's a large business hub that connects Italy to the rest of Europe. Look at all those electric cables for the city tram!
Cool statue near the Duomo
No gelato for me, I'll take one of EVERYTHING please!
This is a really big fountain in the center of Piazza Castello.
Here is a really big castle, Castello Sforzesco. It was used to defend the city. Now it is a museo.
Robot thinks these holes where used to fire weapons from. He might be on to something.
Robot decided to go for a little swim, it was warm this day.
Once you walk through the castello and out the other side you come to what it was defending. This was the inner city of Milan but now it is Parco Sempione, it has a lake and tons of grass. People are just hanging out, listening to music, playing frisbee, and just enjoying themselves. It was really nice.
Now we are off to Switzerland. Milan was a great city with it's rich history yet still very modern. We've had our fill of Italy on this trip, so now we're ready for a change of scenary.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Venice part II

2010-04-17T14:39:00.000-07:00

Every morning we would enjoy a live show on the street below our balcony. Mike loves the squeeze-box.
I don't know why the heck this ATM was so high. I could barely read the screen.

Spritz Aperol - dry sparkling wine (prosecco), Aperol orange liqueur, and seltzer. Add a green olive for flare.

Long Island Iced Tea and a bendy-straw sitting in Piazza San Marco.

There are pigeons EVERYWHERE in the piazza. They land right in your hand so you can feed them. They're not scared of people at all, they'll even help themselves to your food so you need to keep it close. Robot really wanted to feed the pigeons so we helped him out, 1 euro for a piece of bread from a vendor.

I think Robot is in there somewhere

The food is all gone
Free water to clean my dirty pigeon hands

This is Beams... We think that's her name, when we zoomed in on the piece of fabric in her hand we saw that her name was embroidered on it... It looks like it said BEAMS.
Poor Beams! I wish someone would save her embroidered fabric before it gets ruined, that's a souvenir!

Ponte dei Sospiri, the "Bridge of Sighs"... Its a bummer this structure is cluttered with advertisments.

Mike said "hurry, jump over that chained-off area and sit on the lion!"
Then Mike said "oh! go hide under that lion! Hurry before someone sees you!" Just because I'm small he thinks its funny to make me do tricks.

Robot and a new friend. It's just an apartment call box
More free water

You won't believe your eyes!....
French fries, hot dog, and sausage on a pizza!

Not again! Mom... I'll need more socks when I get home.
Our hotel was right next to Rialto Bridge and next to that is the fish market! It doesn't smell as bad as you think it would. Check out the huge tuna!

Scallops! I know someone who loves these.

Hey! The artichokes arrived! These are for the farmers market next door.
We might as well eat the stuff if its that fresh... the oysters were good.

Octapus salad for a growing girl.
Raw tuna fish in a croissant.. just add mustard and its delicious!

Aww... someone was sad when the oyster missed his mouth.
There.... no one will notice.

A little pink champagne will make him happy... look at that face, he forgot he spilled oyster juice on his shirt.

This place was a total sausage fest!!!
Chocolate Easter eggs big and shiny can be purchased for 30 euro each. Who wants to spend that much on an egg you're going to break yourself anyways? I purchased the broken eggs at 3 euro for 100grams and enjoyed them immediately.

Venice is a great city and we loved it. It's very clean and the people really take care of it. It really is a must see when in Europe. We're going to miss it, now on to Milan. Bring on the crazy bus drivers and the even crazier scooter drivers!!!
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Venice part I

2010-04-15T04:35:00.000-07:00

Venice is a great city and we love the fact that we didn't have to worry about getting hit by a speeding scooter, bus or car.... or even a bicycle! The only thing we needed to be careful of was not falling in any of the canals.

Mike was worried he wouldn't fit down this street to our hotel, I barely made it.
Sweet! we have a little balcony open to the busy street below.

View to the left of our balcony
View to the right of our balcony

Super steep steps to our hotel. We made sure to take our time so we didn't fall and lose any teeth.
Its fun to watch the glass maker create little works of art such as these from Murano glass.
Robot loves Venice

We spent most of our time purposely getting lost in Venice. Its the best way to see the city.
A welcoming piece to have on your front door

Uh oh... we had a slight problem on our journey...
Just duck... problem solved.

I didn't have a problem at all, I had extra room!
Laundry day! I'm on my last pair of clean socks.

Laundry is loaded, now we wait...

Somehow Mike managed to lose a sock, I didn't. The gang's all here!

Mike had to have one, he saw these the first day we were in Venice and couldn't stop talking about them. We made sure to go back and get him one.
He was very happy... he's speechless.

Hmm... Nutcream or yogurt...? Tough decision.
We missed Carnival by one week! I still got mysel a pretty mask.

Mike loves taking advantage of drinking in the streets.
Soto shadows!

Dang it! I liked these socks too. Mom is going to have to get me more socks when I get home.
I got excited to see a display of Tim Burton works in the store window.

The women in the red boat were working hard and moving fast in that thing. They were working off their 'bingo-arms'
When we did laundry my plaid jacket shrunk so I got myself a new jacket.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Leaning Tower of Pisa

2010-04-14T06:32:00.000-07:00

Pisa's only claim to fame is the leaning tower and it's poor foundation construction so we had to go see it. It was a little out of the way but we would have regretted it if we had left Italy and not visited it. You know what, the tower REALLY leans!
It leans permanetly at 3.9 degrees which is pretty drastic but before 2001 it used to lean at 5.5 degrees. It was straightened and reinforced by engineers for safety reasons.

Everyone knows Elaina and I aren't the cheesy tourist type, so we're not gonna be holding up the tower or pushing it over. So we decided to take pictures of other cheesy tourists.

These two sisters were funny. One was all into it and the other could care less. The younger one was saying, "c'mon you don't even look like you're pushing it. Tell her mom!"

Here's a whole bunch of them doing it. We were cracking up at the people taking the pictures, "lower, move up, okay right there, hold it."

Okay, Robot has a cheesy side too so he wanted a piece of the action pushing the tower over.

Cool shot Elaina took. You can see the tower's reflection in my sunglasses. This is my touristy photo.

And finally, Elaina's touristy photo. You should have seen people staring at her like she was crazy as she laughed with her legs up in the air!

Ferrari

2010-04-13T08:52:00.001-07:00

We went to the Galleria Ferrari. The factory is not open to tours like Lamborghini's. It's only open to actual Ferrari owners, which we are not. The next best thing for us normal folk is the Ferrari Museum just a block away from the factory gates. Ferrari owns a HUGE part of Maranello where the factory is located. Most of the cities people either works for or is somehow connected to the Ferrari factory.

First we had to take a train from Bolgona to Modena which was about 25 minutes. Then we had to jump on a bus from Modena to Maranello which was close to an hour. Once we arrived in Maranello I know we had t get off on the 'Ferrari' stop. Just before we did, we passed over Ferrari's test track Fiorano, it's a crappy picture but it's all I had time for. They test all of the new road cars here as well as all of the Formula 1 and other race cars they produce. When we got off of the train we were greeted by a couple Ferrari's buzzing around the area.
The unfortunate thing was that we were here on Easter Sunday so everything in the town was closed. Only the museum and a couple gift shops were open so we didn't get to see people coming and going in and out of the factory. Maybe next time.
That's me in front of the legendary Ferrari gates. I peeked through the bars and there was a card swipe turnstile that everyone needed to pass through so there's no way of ANYONE sneeking in.
Then we made our way over to the Official Maranello Ferrari Store.
They have everything in here from Ferrari branded cologne, clothing. baby car seats, carbon fiber jewelery boxes, hats, flags, and so on. Everything is very nice and very expensive.
Here's an engine they had on display inside the store.
Elaina in front of a wall of die cast Ferrari models. If only I had more room in our luggauge.
After window shopping for a while we decided to make our way over to the museum now.
They have everyhting in there from original year one F1 cars to modern day F1 cars. They also have all of the major road cars along with engines and anything else you can imagine. Here's some eye candy.
Die cast models of every year F1 racer.
The last 6 F1 engines.
More cars, 24 Hour of Le Mans winner back in the day. This Ferrari was the reason why Ford made the GT-40.
2010 F-458. When cruising around town only the center exhaust pipe is used but when you floor it, all three pipes sing!
F-2008 F1 car
Ferrari F-40, one of my favorites because it was turbo charged with a fiberglass chassis!
Ferrari F-50, the first of the real aerodynamic road cars. It's said that over 150mph the car could essentially drive upside down in a tunnel it created so much downward force due to aerodynamics.
Ferrari Enzo (unoffically F-60), the latest and greatest Ferrari road car.
The Ferrari FXX, this is the race version of the Enzo. It's lighter, more powerful, and all around more aggressive in every way. They have all been sold at 1.5 million euro ($2.25m USD) and the owners don't even get to keep them. Once purchased Ferrari must store and keep the car for you. When we are ready to go racing or display it you call Ferrari and they ship it to you with an official mechanic who will tune it specificlly and if you haven't crashed it yet, when you are done they ship it back to the factory. "Hey wanna check out the 2 million dollar car I just bought but I'm not allowed to keep in my garage?!" No thanks.
Here they have the last 15 F1 engines on stands with it's matching chassis on the adjacent wall. You can see how the body and engine designs have really evolved over the years.
More F1 cars and a real F1 pit garage that is transported to every race. Every tool and tire is in the same place each race no matter where they are in the world racing. They supply everything.
Outside across from the museum there is a gift shop that actually owns a couple Ferrari's. Here you can "test drive" three current models the F-430 Coupe, the Ferrari California (it's a convertable), and the F-430 Scuderia (lighter and more power than the standard F-430). The prices are 60, 80, and 100 euro for 20 minutes around Maranello. 100, 130, and 150 for 30 minutes. 160, 180, and 210 for 45 minutes. Then grand daddy, 300, 320, and 360 to drive these cars for 1 hour in the local mountains that over look the factory! Any of these would have been nice but hey, we're in a recession!!!
After walking the Ferrari grounds we headed back to the Modena rail station. It's a small stop and I had to use the "facilties". I walked into one of the stalls and this is what I saw.
It's just a porcelin hole in the ground with gripped places for your feet to squat and a flush button up on the wall. We haven't seen anything like this before on our trip so I had to take a picture. Good thing I only had to go #1!

Lamborghini

2010-04-10T16:51:00.001-07:00

I woke up bright and early for our day today. We were going to 'Motor Valley'. It's a part of Italy where the factories for motor companies like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Pagani, and Ducati are located just to name a few.
From Bologna we had to take a 45 minute bus ride to Bolognese. It's a suburb of Bologna to the Lamborghini factory. They are one of a small handfull of companies that 100% hand assemble their cars. They also allow you to walk the factory floor while they are putting the cars together. I couldn't wait!

We arrived a little early for our 2:00pm tour so we walked around the very small and quiet town. Elaina, as always, made friends right away. They weren't much for conversation though.

It was a short walk to the factory. You can't miss the building.

Once we walked through the gates. This beauty was sitting near the office entrance.I hate to ruin everyone's excitment out there but they do not allow any photos or video on the factory floor so they watched and made us surrender our cell phones and cameras into lockers. It was a small group of maybe 12 people on our tour so there was no way around this for me. The following photos are from the museum they have just in front of the factory doors. Enjoy!

I think we all had a Countach poster on our walls when we were young boys. I had to stand next to it. The top of the roof comes up to my waste.

Flat black. They said that flat black, yellow, orange, white, and green are the most popular colors these past two years. I like that. It looks like a stealth bomber to me.

This is a prototype that never was. It's a topless model but the driver and passenger are seperated. Think of it like the old SpeedRacer and original Batmobile. I like it, but not very practical.

Lamborghini makes championship winning formula speed boats. Here's a 2000hp engine!

Old school boat motor

Formula One cars

One of my favorites, a Diablo GT car. This was a great era for GT racing.

New GT racer, it's 100% carbon fiber. There's no paint or clear coat on it at all! This is an actual police vehicle used by the Italian police. I believe they said besides this one there are 4 others in exsistance that are really used. "Where you goin? NO WHERE!"

This one is painted flat black. The rear end of this car is pure perfection.

After our tour this pulled up outside. It was driven by Valentino Balboni.

Valentino has been an employee since 1968. He's been the official test driver for Lamborghini for over 30 years. If you've purchased a Lambo in the last 30 years this man was the first person to drive it. All of their cars are road tested before being shipped out to the customer. He's since retired but is still a "driving consultant" for the company which still allows him to road test the cars.

At the bus stop waiting for our bus home. Here he goes again around town!

Elaina writing everything in her journal on the way home.

Bologna, it's not just a bunch of bologna

2010-04-10T13:25:00.001-07:00

So we arrived in Bologna, Italy by train. It was only an hour by high speed train from Florence so it was no time at all. Not to disrespect Bologna but it's only a stop on our trip so we could go to the Lamborghini factory in Modena and the Ferrari Galleria Museum in Maranello. We were only there for a couple of nights.

One night out to dinner I wasn't really feeling pasta or pizza so I ordered the"meat plate". It only said "grilled meat" below so I just went for it. There was filet mignon and t-bone for double the price so I was hoping for the best. This is what came out from the kitchen MUCH to my surprise!

It was a plate with grilled steak, grilled chicken, grilled pork chop, and a slab of grilled sausage patty. So basically the menu couldn't have been much more descriptive. It really was a MEAT PLATE and it all went into my belly!

One of the nights we found a cool Irish pub not far from our hotel. It had no Irish people but 9 times out of 10 there's some good drinking going on inside Irish pubs. We were right, here you can order 4, 6, or 8 liters of beer from the tap in this special container with a spout. We opted for the 4 liter.

4 liters = 132 ounces

132 ounces = 11 cans of beer

We had a long day ahead of us tomorrow so we got to work.

Elaina did a really good job and held her own. I thought I was going to have to do most of the heavy lifting.

Halfway done. The waitress thought it was "so cool" that we were from L.A. She asked us, "You're from L.A. What are you doing here in Bologna?" We just laughed.

Elaina and I putting the final touches on that bad boy.

The cost for 4 liters of beer you ask? It was 16.00 euro ($24usd) not a bad deal if you ask me. The waitress gave us the bill and never came back. I only had a 50 euro bill on me and I wasn't about to leave it all to her so we waited, and waited, and waited. No lie it was like 20 minutes before we just said screw it and walked out. I didn't leave her the 50, we just walked out without paying. It's not like we're ever coming back to Bologna anyways! Good times!!!

Florence - Part II

2010-04-10T03:17:00.000-07:00

No, its not the real David... Its one of the many replica's.

Robot at the Arno River

I wonder if this light post ever walks around when no one is looking?
An evening stroll..... Bella noche!

Try the canolies! Bada-Bing! Oh! Hey!
Mike passed on the canolies for a grande gelato. He just wanted the nutty chocolate cone and you could only have it if you ordered grande. He had no choice.

I dropped mine! I was so sad and Mike laughed and pointed at my cone on the ground.
He felt bad and gave me some of his, he had plenty to share. I was happy again.

What kind of glue are they using to post paper onto buildings??
This is the real David by Michelangelo... In the Accademia Museum where David lives there is NO PHOTOGRAPHY allowed anywhere in the museum. Guess someone missed the memo...again.

My turn in the little elevator, have fun going up 4 flights of stairs Mike!
Nutella on the go! WITH JUICE!!!

They're all over the place... Need a new apron?
How about some bicycle shorts?

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore
Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore AT NIGHT! Creepy looking... I like it.

Florence - Part I

2010-04-10T03:07:00.000-07:00

If you're ever in Florence and want good pizza and beer, go to Mostodolce. They brew their own beer that's even won awards and all their pizzas are made to order. It's that good ol' pub feel with a hint of being at home but everyone speaks Italian and the food is better.
Good beer at a good price. We didn't break the bank at this place.

Napoli Pizza: Tomatoes, mozzarella, capers, oregano and anchovies! Yes, it was good!
Coccoline: Basically its pizza dough rolled up into balls and baked. Served with Salsa.

Round two! We came back another night for more pizza and beer! It's THAT good! I ordered an old fashioned margherita pizza and Mike had a pizza with slices of hot dog, ham, mushrooms and artichokes (for me to pick off).
We can watch them toss the dough and cook our pizza from our table.

Yellow Bar: A great spot for good home made pasta. Our friend Louie recommended this place to us and the food is so good! We're glad he told us about it but bummed at the same time. We know we'll probably never have pasta that good again. I was so full afterwards I felt like I was going to puke. This is a full on restaurant and again the kitchen is wide open so you can watch everything be prepared. We got there at 7:20 and the place was filling up fast.
Cheese platter and a litre of the house wine please!

We just had to try this fresh spaghetti. Mike had spaghetti carbonara (buttery goodness with bacon and egg) and I had spaghetti alla carrettiera (the spicy spaghetti).
We're bringing the dogs when we come back to Europe... they're welcome everywhere!

Leaving Yellow Bar and now there's a long wait outside.
The elevator in our hotel. There's only room for one person at a time. We took turns taking the stairs to the 4th floor.

Grappa...Yaowza! Meant to be sipped and afterwards you breath fire!
View from our hotel room.

Sending love to our loved ones.
This is the way to park a bicycle, in case you were wondering.

Mike was almost convinced to buy illegal goods from this guy. The guy's words were "C'mon you buy this watch, its best on the black market" (as he pointed to his skin color).
The coconut was calling my name.

Time to do laundry and pass time while it rained outside.
Mike can't travel without space-saver bags. Mike's clothes before...

Mike's clothes after... look at all that space saved!
I wasn't amused at Mike's excitement in space-saving.

We strolled into the '1 Euro' store and what does Mike find? More space saver bags and toilet paper! Look at how happy he is!

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Vatican City

2010-04-09T18:10:00.000-07:00

The Vatican City is a state within Rome and governed by Rome's bishop, the pope. The Vatican's museum is the most visited museum in the world.
[EDIT] It is the 5th most visited musuem in the world. Thanks for the info Vins, they almost tricked us!

Lunch just outside Vatican City walls so we're still in Rome here.
In AD 313, the Emperor Constantine made Christianity legal and for the first time, they were allowed to openly worship.

Sphere Within Sphere by Pomodoro in the courtyard. Much more of a modern piece in the Vatican.

In the Vatican museum you'll see quite a bit of pagan art. The reason its okay to be here is because the pope felt it held no religious significance and kept it displayed for the sake of it being art and part of our history.
Most of the statues we see were found buried. Heads were missing from statues because it was the easiest part to steal instead of trying to take the entire statue.

Laocoön and His Sons shows the Trojan priest Laocoön and his sons being strangled by sea serpents. When this statue was discovered Lacoon's right arm was missing. Aritsts debated on how the arm should appear. Michaelangelo believed the arm was bent back over the shoulder others believed the arm should be shown extended.

Nero's bath basin which is made out of a now extinct red marble.
All bronze sculptures were ordered to be melted down for their lime and used to make weapons for the Roman army. This sculpture of Hercules of the Theatre of Pompey was saved, it was struck by lightining and thought there was some significance to that.

Artemis Goddess of Fertility, those aren't multiple breasts, those are bull testicles.

Mosaic using a rare blue tile which is the same type of tile (crushed) used to paint the sky in The Last Judgement on the wall in the Sistine Chapel.
The ceiling is flat... its painted to give the look of third dimension.

Over 20 tapestries by Raphael and used as means of insulation and art (of course).
NO PHOTOGRAPHY, NO VIDEO, NO TALKING in the Sistine Chapel.... Someone didn't get the memo.

This shot was taken right before I tripped down the step that jumped right in front of me. I yelped and Mike shook his head. I didn't lose my teeth!

Robot and the Swiss guards.
Someone should tell this guy he has a bird on his head.

More free water to wash my hands
Madonna and Child

The exterior wall of St. Peter's Basilica is from the fallen exterior wall of the Colosseum.
I'm at the basilica touching the Colosseum.

The Porta Sancta (Holy Door) is opened once every 25 years, a Holy Year (Jubilee). There are 4 sets of these doors. The last opening ocurred in 2000. Only the pope may open it on the first day of a Holy Year by striking the brick with a silver hammer and opening it. On the day it is opened you can walk through these doors and have your sins forgiven... its much easier to repent now then to wait 25 years if you ask me.
Michelangelo's pieta, a piece I was eager to see even though my personal favorite pieta is the Rottgen Pieta.

Robot taking a break from all the walking.

This concludes our tour for today ;)
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

When in Rome.... Part II

2010-04-08T07:39:00.000-07:00

Here's Robot in a store with some more of his brothers

We found an old toy maker that carves everything by hand from wood. Pretty cool.

Another day we went to The Pantheon. It used to be a pagan church but has now been converted to a Christian church. It's dome is perfectly round in length, width, and even it's height. The top of the dome has an opening in it. If you were to visit it on a rainy day and stand inside you'd get wet.

After the Pantheon we went to Piazza Navona. This is a really big oval piazza with a couple fountains and monuments. It was completely filled with atrists selling their work and sketchers offering to draw you. They were everywhere. Again we decided to people watch over some gelato.

We saw this crazy lady and had to snap a quick shot. I told Elaina this is gonna be her when she gets old!

Sweet bachelorette party this chick is having... NOT!

The last two days of our stay in Rome our good friend Corey hooked us up with the brother of his good friend, Jeff. Jeff is a super cool guy that works for the Embassy and lives in a badass part of Rome up on a hill. Jeff's face and apartment photos have been witheld to protect the innocent. His place was SWEET though!

One day we went down to the Tiber River on the island side to hang out. It was a nice day and there were lots of other people down there just sun bathing, Robot really enjoyed it.

Once down there we found a nice little place to sit and have sandwiches with a bottle of wine. Once we were there we started to notice how dirty it was down here. Nothing like La Siene in Paris. Upon further investigation we saw a couple USED condoms and multiple wrappers. YUCK! We figured we'd finish our lunch and be on our way. As we looked down at our food, there was condom wrapper touching Elaina's food! At least it wasn't MY food!

As we were getting ready to leave I noticed someone across the river. It was a bum and he was doing something that looked unusual. Taking a DUMP! So I quickly grabbed my camera and started taking pictures. Here he is going at it.

Here's a lady walking and talking on her phone. She has no idea what's going on just ahead of her. She's probably saying, "I have to go to the market tonight and tomorrow I'm getting my hair done, blah blah blah..."

Here she just realized what's going on and her conversation is something like this now, "...blah, blah, blah, OMG! There's a bum here totally taking a DUMP!"
That was a perfect end to our romantic used condom lunch along the river.

Random Shots

Us walking along the Tiber River

More ruins that were found buried and now is over run by hundreds of feral cats. The city has made the area a cat sanctuary. It smells like cat piss!

A different area of ruins that don't smell like piss.

Palm Sunday

Spanish steps and people watching in the evening

Streets filled for shopping near the Spanish steps.

Cool looking shoe store

The key to Jeff's place, pretty sweet looking but takes up a lot of pocket space.

There must have been some Greek/Italians around... Opa!

At the Rome train station on our way to Florence

Wheb in Rome.... Part I

2010-04-08T07:23:00.000-07:00

Spain was amazing and we were sad to leave it behind but were equally excited to see Rome and venture into Italy for the first time. We had heard so many good things about it we couldn't wait. We decided to catch a plane to Rome from Barcelona because the 15 hour train ride didn't sound as fun as 3 hours by plane. We told ourselves that this would be the last plane ride we take on our trip until we fly home to LAX because we had purchased an unlimited Euro rail pass and we had to make the most of it because it wasn't cheap!
So now we're at the Rome train terminal at the airport and ready to head towards our hotel. As you can see, Elaina is pretty excited too.

Well, our excitment soon turned to WTF?! As we traveled through Rome and its outskirts we were taken back by the poverty that the city has so close to it's well known touristy center. Our hotel is only 5 miles from the city center and was surrounded by housing projects, prostitutes, and graffitti. Since it was already getting late we stayed the night in our hotel which was really nice and really safe. It just happened to be in a bad part of town. The next morning we checked out even though we had booked for 5 nights. They told us it was a 2 night minimum which we remembered when booking so we left anyways and just ate the cost of the second night. Live and learn I guess?

Day 2 in Rome was much better. We found a hotel near a metro and it was 1 block from the largest piazza in Europe, Vittorio Emanuele II. Now we could get anywhere in Rome semi-quickly because although they have a metro it's only 2 lines and it's not very frequent. I guess we were spoiled with the great transportation in Paris and Barcelona. I already miss baguette's and paella! We caught a metro and headed to the colosseum. We stopped for some lunch just across the street and it had a great view.

After a short line and once inside it was pretty breath taking. After all the movies and photos you see it still doesn't represent the true size and history this place has. We did a few quick laps around both levels and took some photos.

Robot took this photo of us.

After the colosseum we went to The Forum and Palatino Hill right next door. The Forum was an area that was uncovered after being completely buried by the Tiber River and it constantly flooding the surrounding area. Here are some shots from The Forum and Palatino Hill.

More free city water

Robot took this photo of us too

Here's Elaina about to fall right as I take a picture. Her teeth were fine!

I already forgot the name of this place but it totally copied Ceasar's Palace in Vegas! HAHA!!!

Here we are at the Piazza Della Repubblica. It was a nice day.

Then we walked over to The Quattro Fontane, what a freaking rip off! On our map it was marked as a point of interest but when we got there it was just four dirty fountains on the street corner that barely spout any water. At least it wasn't out of the way, we were heading towards the Spanish Steps anyways.

Almost to the Spanish Steps and we stopped at Fontana Del Tritone in the Palazzo Barberini. A real fountain in the center of the palazzo with people and water.

Moving on, we finally arrived at The Spanish Steps. We've been hearing lots of hype about things in Rome and well the steps didn't disappoint. They're just steps. They were funded by a Frenchman and designed by an Italian architect to connect the lower street to the church on the above street. So what do you get when you combine French money with Italian Architecture? You got it, Spanish Steps. You got me on that one! There are lots of people hanging around though, we just sat and poeple watched for a while over some gelato.

Next on our list was the Fontana De Trevi, on our way we saw this momument with the Virgin Mary. If you look closely at the second pohoto there are flowers placed at her feet. How do they get up there?!

Here's the Trevi Fountain, now THIS is a fountain! It's huge, filled with clean clear water, and tons of people. It's said that before and after battle the roman soldiers would drink from the fountain and throw a coin in to please the gods.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Barcelona Part Tres - Gaudi-ism

2010-04-04T17:17:00.000-07:00

We're in Barcelona and what we must see is Gaudi architecture. So Mike and I set out on a "Gaudi Architecture Walking Tour".

Antonio Gaudi: He was a Catalan architect with many works in Barcelona. He was influenced by nature and the desire to go beyond anything that had ever been done before. We figure Gaudi was one or all of the three following things, a genius, looney-tunes, or on acid.

Gaudi died in 1926 when he was run over by a tram. Cab drivers refused to pick him up because he looked ragged and assumed he couldn't afford the fare. Eventually he was taken to the hospital and died 3 days later.

La Sagrada Familia (Holy Family Church)

This is one of the most spectacular buildings we've seen since we've been in Europe. Gaudi's purpose was to build this church to glorify God in such a way that couldn't be done "overnight". It didn't interest him to build another gothic cathedral so he designed this very (for the time and still is) contemporary cathedral. This structure is so elaborate it goes beyond Gaudi's years (literally). Construction for this church began in 1882 and still continues to the present day. The estimated completion date is tentatively set for 2026.

View from one of the towers... It was pretty windy up there.

The plan of the church is based off the Latin cross. The inside columns were influenced by nature (of course for Gaudi)... trees. Each column instead of the traditional 'groin vaults' has branch-like features. The ceiling above is meant to resemble flowers and leaves with small openings that allow light to peak through, much like a real forest.

The ongoing of this construction is paid for by tourism.

Gaudi knew he would not live to see the completion of this masterpiece so he left extensive and elaborate color drawings of his vision for future architects to follow.

Model making shop. Still very important to the project.

When designing the main idea of this temple, Gaudi invented a method for determining the correct angle for each of the leaning columns. He made a small hanging model of the church by using string to represent the columns and small sand bags to weigh them down. This let gravity do the math and create the angles and arcs. The only problem was, everything is UPSIDE DOWN. Yes, he designed this cathedral upside down so he placed a large mirror above in order to see an accurate progression.

When its complete it will have a total of 18 towers (currently 8 are built), representatives of the towers in ascending order of height: 12 apostles, 4 evangelists, the virgin Mary, and tallest of all Jesus Christ at 170 meters (557 feet). Gaudi determined this height because it will be one meter less than the tallest hill (Montjuïc) in Barcelona. Gaudí believed that the work of man should not surpass the work of God. I'd love to come back when this church is completed.

Casa Batillo

Another work of Gaudi's, just a mile or two walk away from familia is this great building decorated with colored glass, ceramic circles and mask-shaped balconies which to me look more like distorted skulls. The roof of this building is scaled like a dragon's back.

Casa Mila

A Gaudi apartment building with wavy walls that resemble ocean waves. The doors and windows look like holes dug out of the sand. The balcony railing detail was beautiful.

Barcelona Part Dos

2010-04-04T16:24:00.000-07:00

Lunch and sangria

Mike being a giant

I'll have pistachio gelato, thank you.

...and I'll have a hand full of mini shovel spoons! I was obsessed with these, or am... I have a mini collection and yes, I touched all of those spoons in the community basket. I took most of what I could grab though.

Gelato on a waffle... that's right!

FREE WATER! These spouts are all over Spain and Italy. They constantly run with no need for a button to press and it's clean, fresh, free drinking water for everyone. We would just refill our water bottle along our journey.

Cool little race shop in town.

Would you like a chocolate castle for 80 Euro?

A quick shot of some wall art in the Metro.

Robot and a new friend

On the pier in Barcelona there was an Audi demonstration where you could test drive the new Audi A1 on their little temporary track.

Try the cuttlefish in a tasty garlic sauce. Don't forget to add the potato.

I know its not exactly their specialty but Mike ordered the best seafood pasta I've ever had (shrimp and mussels).

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Barcelona Part Uno

2010-04-04T16:05:00.000-07:00

The Train to Barcelona
We had a 9 hour tain ride from Nice to Barcelona and it was nice to travel 1st class. We heard horror stories about the European trains but ours was nice, reclining seats, wall sconce lighting, plenty of room, and a food/drink cart that had EVERYTHING. Our train stopped in Marsielle for about 10 minutes and we just sat patiently and stared out our window.

Lots of excitement going on at the train station that day, people sitting and waiting for their train to arrive, finding ways to pass time like picking their nose as if there's a nose picking competition coming up and they want the gold! This chick meant business, she'd pick for a while...stop...pick again...look at her finger...rub her mouth...dig again...stop...she didn't care and the stranger sitting next to her had no clue!

A couple benches down from her was this guy... he had to know right? Its a little chilly, he's wearing a jacket, he has to feel the breeze on his crack.

Alright enough of our train stop experiences. We're in Barcelona and the this city is beautiful, the people are friendly and most speak English so we put our Spanish aside and said forget trying to attempt to speak Catalano.

Gothic Point Hostel
Our hostel wasn't too far of a walk from the train station. We stayed here at Gothic Point, its a youth hostel and our first hostel. Mainly students stay here but you see older people as well. We saw a couple old enough to be our grandparents here so the hostel is still welcoming to the non youthful like us.

The hostel had a common area with tables and couches a small kitchen, tv, games and plenty of information for tourists. Since the youthful stay here there's a lot of information on clubs and bars.

These were our beds, there are two beds side by side on the top bunk. So complete strangers could actually sleep this close to each other if the place was booked!

Our room sleeps 12 people and is a "mixed" room meaning shared room of female and male. When we arrived we had I think a group of 8 American boys already lodging in our room. Luckily our room had 2 private bathrooms (everything but a shower): 1 boys and 1 girls. So I had a bathroom for myself but I know they used it because the toilet seat was left up a couple times. Boys aren't slick at all. The showers were in a hallway common area for all the guest of the hostel to use.

We found out pretty quickly that you don't want to climb the metal ladder without shoes, it feels like your feet are curling around the bar... we're not monkeys. Oh and check it out... curtains! A little privacy but you can still hear everyone as if they're right there in the room with you... because... they're right there in the room with you! I won't miss hearing the boys blast farts in the morning, I might miss their stories about "chicks dude".

We learned in Spain, the nighlife doesn't begin till almost midnight. The weather was absolutely perfect our first night. The streets were crowded with people, so many people just walking around, sitting on steps, having gelato, shopping, eating dinner, etc.

We found a great restaurant, Casa Delfin. We did tapas and had beer, the food was great!

La Seu Cathedral

Santa Maria Del Mar
Robot is praying

Inside Santa Maria del Mar

Outside Santa Maria del Mar. That's me on the steps!

The Night We Can't Remember But Will Never Forget

The sangria got the best of us and the next morning we said those famous words "I'm never drinking again". We tried to save money by drinking out of plastic jugs of Sangria bought from the local market... take a mental note that the alcohol volume labeled in bold says 11.4%. How do they do it? The stuff is like fruit juice!

In the common area of our hostel. You can see Mike in the background sitting with the boys from our room,

Now I'm where Mike was sitting and having a good time.

Making new friends... we liked them.

See the dangerous jugs of cheap, sneak-up-on-you sangria. I don't know how many bottles we all went through. I'm sure the market ran out due to us.

Oh hey, we're in a club... When did that happen? It wasn't apart of the plan to "have a chill night".

Our new Facebook friends and they're American. They can stay with us anytime.

How am I bent backwards and how did I not fall? Or did I?

There was dancing? I was dancing?

This must be the part right before I got kicked out of the place for throwing up. "I'll never drink again"
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Monaco - Champagne Wishes and Caviar Dreams

2010-03-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

So we finally arrived in Monaco, I couldn't wait to get off of the train and see the town that I've been watching on television for years. I was hoping it would live up to my expectaions.
Here we are walking down the hill from the train station. Only on the way BACK at the end of the day we realized that there was a moving sidewalk that took you all the way up the hill back to the station. Next time I guess!!!

The Monaco harbour is filled with million dollar yachts and sailboats. Elaina said she would actually want to live on one. Not a small one of course.

Here's the view from the top of the hill near the casino square. I'll talk more on the casino later. You can see what kind of city we're in.

Here's the casino, definitely NOT vegas!
Cool monument outside the casino.

Just some of the cars outside the casino. We're talking big time money, these cars total close to a million dollars alone!!!

Of course all this fine machinery needs some fine fuel. In the states we have 91 octane fuel for high proformance cars. Here they have 95 octane for standard cars, 98 octane for some better juice at 1.53 euro per litre (not gallon) and 107 super unleaded for the high end drivers at 8.00 euro per LITRE. That's 12.00 dollars US for a litre, NOT gallon!

Now down at the water front and the view is as clear as the ocean.

Monaco is hosting the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix in May (more on that in a bit) so they are paving the streets now. Elaina dug up some of the tarmac (asphalt) for me as a souvenier.

After our day on the town I promised Elaina we could have anything she wanted for lunch before we headed back to Nice. She had her sights set on a bucket mussels. When I say bucket, I mean BUCKET.

Here's Elaina with a statue of Juan Manuel Fangio and his Mercedes. Arguably one of the greatest Formula 1 drivers of all time.

Afterwards we enjoyed some ice cream.

Then we made our way back up the hill to the train station just to discover the moving sidewalk I spoke about earlier. DOH!

Now onto the meat and potatoes of this post, the race track! Elaina asked me to post this portion of the entry after our sightseeing as to not bore the non race fans. Stick around, you might learn a thing or two.

The Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix, is held in the streets of Monaco once a year around May. Ticket prices range anywhere from $300 for a race ticket, to $5,000 for vip balcony views, and $100,000 weekend yacht rentals for the rich and famous. My only reason for going to Nice was to train it on over to Monaco so we could walk the famous 2.1 mile track layout that so many decades of historic drivers have driven on.

Here's the Start/Finish line where the F1 cars have their standing start.

Here's the view going into Turn 1 (Sainte Devote), it doesn't look like much but it's very tight and one of the most important corners. It is so hard to pass on this circuit so if you lead after turn 1 you are already looking good for a strong finish.

After turn 1 is an uphill straight (not very straight so no passing). On television it doesn't look as steep, but trust me, once you start walking up you realize how steep it really is. I could actually hear the F1 cars roaring up the hill and it gave me chills. I know, I'm retarded. Here's a view from the top of that straight looking back at Turn 2 (Beau Rivage). You get a real feel for how quickly the elevation changes. This is the highest point on the track. The rest is down hill from here (thank goodness).

Here we are entering Turn 3 (Massenet) facing the casino.

The casino complex is a quick left sweeper followed by Turn 4 (Casino) that takes you right in front of the square. This casino isn't like the casino's we are normally used to. Men must be wearing coats, no tennis shoes, and women must be dressed appropriately as well. We passed on entering the casino, I'm sure the stakes were too rich for us anyways.

After the casino, it's a short downhill blast to Turn 5 (Mirabeau Haute). There used to be a rise in the downhill area but it has since been ground away so the F1 cars no longer have to avoid it.

Down at the end you can see Turn 6 (Grand Hotel Hairpin), it is the slowest corner in all of Formula 1. Special suspension and rack arms are made just for this corner because its so tight.

Here I am at the inside of the corner. You can still see the tire marks from the previous years F1 races.

After the hairpin there are two quick right hand corners Turns 7 and 8 (Mirabeau Bas and Portier) that can almost be taken as a double apex corner. This second apex needs special attention because it leads onto the tunnel back straight and truley the only real overtaking possiblility on the track.

Here the drivers go from full sunlight to an artificially lit tunnel. Like everywhere else on the track this back straight isn't really straight either so they call it Turn 9 (Tunnel) but as you exit the tunnel you now have your overtaking opportunity with a quick left/right chicane. Now you're back at sea level and about 2/3 through the lap.

This is the overtaking spot looking back at the exit of the tunnel, Turns 10 and 11 (Nouvelle Chicane).

Looking down at the chicane.

Here is where you exit the chicane.

Now we're entering Turn 12 (Tabac) which is a fast left hander. Full throttle now!

Turns 13 and 14 (Louis Chiron and Piscine) is a left/right chicane that puts you at the "swimming pool complex".

I wonder why they call it that? The F1 cars actually drive around the city swimming pool.

Once past the swimming pool you get to another chicane, this time a right/left with some permanent grandstands just to your left. These are turn 15 and 16 (no turn name given).

The circuit bend slightly to your left and then you come upon a very tight right hand hairpin Turn 17 (La Rascasse). The corner is named after the restaurant that it orbits around. A lunch here during the race will put you within reach of the cars rotating the circuit, it will also put your pocket book back $2,500 euro per person ($3,700 usd).

After La Rascasse you have a choice, enter into the pit lane on the right side or take the last corner Turn 19 (Anthony Noghes) which is a right hander that leads you onto the start finish straight (that's not really straight). Don't forget, you need maximum traction coming off this last corner because if a driver gets by you on the front straight going into turn 1 you are stuck behind them for a large portion of the lap.

Monaco was everything that I thought it would be and more. I can only dream about attending an actual F1 race here one day. I'm so happy we were able to make it here to walk the track!

.

Nice is... nice!

2010-03-24T17:02:00.000-07:00

So after Paris we made our way to Nice. Elaina said we could go because she knew how badly I wanted to see Monaco. Monaco neighbors Nice (15 minutes by train) and is a small principality just south of France on what is called the French Riveria. Monaco gets all the glits and glam but Nice is very much a gem in it's own right.

Here's the view from our room. It's not much but it is still more than we need. I'm gearing up for what's in store tomorrow in Monaco.

Down at the main shopping area near the water front. The city is very clean and looks like it's been updated recently.

Now down at the water, it's still pretty chilly but we have our baguette, wine, and cheese in hand. Hey, this is still France so we're gonna make the most of it.

Just people watching and enjoying our time. The beach is beautiful but it's all pebbles? They seem to lack sand beaches here.

The city tram that you can ride all day for 4 euro, not a bad deal at all. We liked how they planted grass along the tracks to give it a less urban feel when the tram is not around.

For SOME of us a walk in the park means something different. I still love her though!

Cool building all lit up at night.

Nice was great and we're so glad we were able to enjoy it. I would reccomend it to everybody when in the south of France.

.

Paris Part Trois - Fin

2010-03-22T16:06:00.001-07:00

Pierre Herme
I wanted to know where I could get excellent desserts and pastries. We're both so fortunate to have Vins as our personal tour guide. He said if I wanted very good chocolate and desserts I should go to Pierre Herme off St.Germain Boulevard. This boulevard is a major street in Paris and located on the South Side of the La Siene river. It has many shops like the shops on Champs Elysees but not as touristy. Anywho, Pierre Herme... its expensive but worth it. Its not just fancy dessert, its a work of art. I wanted to save the desserts for dinner with Vins later that evening. We walked around all day with a box of these desserts. The sad part about this story is the subway cars were so crowded as I hopped on, a swarm of people pushed me in against all the other people. I was still holding onto the desserts but my arm was fully extended now with desserts in hand and the box was squished between all the people... Sad day. We didn't have the desserts with Vins, we just saved the box scraping for the following day. We ate them at a park and even though they weren't pretty anymore the taste was still amazing.

Cafe Procope

I discovered this restaurant on the Moleskine site when I purchased my sketchbook for the trip a couple months ago. This is one of the oldest restaurants in Paris, opened in 1686. Some famous historians used to come to this exact location. Those such as Thomas Jefferson, Benjamn Franklin and famous writer Voltaire. The rumor is Voltaire used to have about 40 cups of coffee each day! Anywho, this place was fancy and beautiful. Our coats were checked for us and we were seated immediately. Mike had the cream of mushroom soup with scallops and I had the french onion soup. Both way better than what we are used to having back home.
Escargot was on the menu (land snails). I have a rule when it comes to new food: Try everything once. We ordered 6 burgundy escargot and they were delicious. They're also high in protein and low in fat..Bonus! If I could compare it to any other type of food that tastes similar I'd say its almost like clams and I love those too. For dessert we had creme brulee. It was good but I still think Market Broiler (at The Block in Orange) has the best I've ever had. The second best would be the creme brulee I ate at Andy and Mary's wedding and third place would go to the Ritz Carlton.

Red Light District
We wanted to check out the Moulin Rouge but had no idea the prices for dinner and a cabaret show were so expensive. Shows were up to 180 Euros which converts to $243 US. That's for dinner + show + bottle of champagne. The lowest price is 80 Euros ($108 US) for just the show. Yikes! We went into a sex museum while we were there. Tons of fertility figures and other bodily figures from all over the world and from different times. I liked some of the art I saw and I saw some that I don't care for and the rest was humorous. There was a sketch book on every floor and I did a quick sketch while we were there.

We saw this place as we walked down the street... Is it really necessary for this store to have several stroies?

Dinner and a show?

St. Patty's Day

Our last night in Paris and we had to get to an Irish pub to celebrate at least with one pint of beer. We were supposed to meet with friends of Vins' at this pub called Connoly's but our day ran too long and by the time we made it to the pub we had just missed them. We still had our beer in the crowded pub. I wasn't wearing anything green to show my spirit. The bar was so packed, people were drinking in the street just outside the bar. We found a place to drink inside and even made a few friends. We were glad to celebrate in another country.

WRONG TERRITORY
We wanted to walk to La Siene and have some wine. It was quite a walk so we had a little journey ahead of us. We had to cross the street to get to La Siene, we found steps that led under that street so we went in that direction (there were too many cars to try and cross the street). Oh boy... there were big SHEATS on the steps and I thought to myself, "that's too big to be dog sheat"... Well I was right! It was human poo! And another big poo and another and next to one was a dirty t-shirt the human used to wipe! For some reason we continued on and found ourselves walking between bums and their tents. I just held tight to my baguette and hummed a little tune to find a happy place. It stunk down there. We made our way through to the river but walked back in another direction. That definitely was not our scene.

Random Shots
We had to stare at this add at every subway station... Not sure what its for but it must be a big deal. Sniff...sniff..... Do you smell bread?

Lunch is served for two and all for about 7 Euro!
In Paris, most everyone is pretty small. Mike was worried the airline would lose his luggage and he wouldn't be able to buy new clothes. Jackpot! We found a shop!

Taking the alley to Cafe Procope with my Pierre Herme sweets in hand and pre-squish.

Mike awaits his fresh street crepe!

The Soto's just outside Le Louvre .

Paris Part Deux

2010-03-21T01:42:00.000-07:00

Formula 1 Race at the Restaurant in the Renault Dealership
As some of you may know I am a big Formula One fan. It's a European based open wheel racing series that is second to none. So of course while in Europe I have to watch an F1 race as the locals do. Well, while we were in Paris the season opener was being held in Bahrain. So Elaina and I set out to find a place to watch the race. Vins recommended trying places along Champs Elysees so that where we started. After no luck and many places we hit the jackpot. There is an indoor Renault dealership right on Champs Elysees (who happens to be one of the current F1 teams so we went to check it out. Inside we found a 20' tall projection screen showning the race live with people all standing around and sitting on the floor in the middle of the showroom. Everyone was cheering and having a good time. On an upstairs terrace we noticed there was a restaurant with full bar so we asked to be sat so we can over look everyone and the screen. Once up there though there were about 20 flat panel tv's all around also showing the race so there wasn't a bad seat in the house! So that's where we stayed and had lunch. It was a great experiance and something I will never forget. I can't wait to watch another race two weeks from now while we are in Italy. Oh by the way, Fernando Alonso and his Ferrari took first place with Ferrari's Felipe Massa in second. It was a good race, too bad all the commentary was in French.

Lavender sorbet served with a blood orange tart.

Elaina's new favorite Parisen dish... Croque MonsieurThe following day on the subway the guy next to us was reading about Alonso's win. Front page!

Tour Eiffel
Another attraction to check off our list of things to see. This was probably our coldest day in Paris (6 ºC = 42.8 ºF) and it was even colder at the top. The view was grand! You don't realize how huge and dense Paris is until you see it from this perspective. You take an elevator to the top and it has many windows so you can watch the world get smaller as your ascend to the top. Its pretty cool and freaky at the same time.

On the grout between the tiles on the bathroom in the tower people had written their names... So we had to do it too.

Street crepes were good. We ate so many crepes all over Paris. Some in a fancy restaurant and others off the street. We haven't had a crepe we didn't like yet.

Arc De Triomphe
Is a beast of a building. I mainly say this because we decided we would go to the top of this building except you don't go up the same way you would if you were in the Eiffel Tower. There is NO elevator, just a narrow spiral staircase about 3' wide all the way to the top. Our legs were burning and we lost a lof of momentum about 1/3 of the way up. There were a couple recessed areas on the way up and we hopped in to catch our breath. Once to the top the view was nice and we spent a little while enjoying the view of the boulevards and watching the cars circle the structure. 284 steps all the way to the top.
Taking a break on our way up the spiral staircase.

It was really cold, Mike had to put on his scarf. He's never owned a scarf till he came to Europe.
I'm still not sure why Mike had me stand over this light.

Its not a very clear day but in the center of this photo is La Grande Arche de La Defense (a 20th century version of the Arc de Triomphe) taken from my view at the historic Arc de Triomphe.

The Axe historique ("historical axis") is a line of monuments, buildings and thoroughfares that extends from the centre of Paris, France, to the west. It is also known as the "Voie Triomphale" (triumphal way).

Beware of Birds
Yeah... I got pooped on. Luckily the bulk of the SHEAT (as the French say) landed on my purse. It kinda bounced off my head. I looked stupid while Mike used baby wipes to clean my head. Robot was amused.

Champs Elysees
This boulevard is one of 12 that connect to the roundabout that circles Arc De Triomphe. It took me forever to get the pronounciation correct and I've finally got it... chonz-ee-lee-zays. I sound like I know what I'm talking about when I say it too! This boulevard is filled with tourists from all over. You'll see stores such as: Louis Vuitton, Sephora, McDonalds, Renault Dealership, Toyota Dealership, Swaroskki, Cartie, Mont Blanc and a butt load more. It's very similar to Rodeo Drive back home, very expensive and fashionable. All the cafe's face the crowded streets so you can people watch and see the cars go by. Sometimes there are so many people you can't see the cars on the street. And then there are the gypsies in most places here collecting spare change or if you drop any they'll catch it before your money hits the floor. Very very sneaky. I just want to know where they get their gold teeth!

The Hole on Champs Elysees Boulevard
We found a small cafe to sit at while we had cappuccinos and chocolate eclairs. Our table was directly on the sidewalk facing all the people walking the boulevard. We noticed a person to our left do a little dance. As we focused our attention on him we realized he was trying to avoid a fall... Why? Because he stepped in a small hole on the sidewalk where a brick should have been. This was the highlight of our evening. We had a good reason to sit at this spot... for the next hour we watched so many people step in that hole. Our stomach's hurt from laughing so hard. Don't worry, no one was hurt or came close to it. They all just did a little "I didn't just trip in that hole" dance and looked back at the hole they stepped in.

Bois De Boulogne
A large park/forest located to the West of Paris. We originally discovered this park when we were at the top of the Eiffel Tower. We asked Vins about the mass of trees we saw and he told us that it was Bois De Boulogne.
We strolled around and got lost a bit in the forest.

We found a bench and decided we'd have ourselves a little lunch in the park. Mike sitting at a bench.

Everyone has dogs and they're all off-leash and very social with the other dogs. Their owners are just as friendly. We met many dogs that day. One was a sweet Golden Retriever, we could tell he was a puppy... he had big paws and was really clumsy. We found that he was more than clumsy, he was a thief! One minute we were petting this dog and giving him love and the next BAM! He took off with our baguette! We weren't upset, we thought it was funny. His owner (a young boy) repeatedly apologized but we assured him everything was fine. We stayed in the park till the sun went down and then headed back home.

We saw a woman leaning into the window of another car with her butt out but the police came by pretty quickly and she walked away. We saw our first Parisien prostitute... I know... exciting.

The Subway
Sometimes its simple and easy to get on and off. Other times its loaded with people and very difficult to get on and off. Sometimes the door slams on you because you just can't shove one more person into a car. Other times its very lonely.

Dinner with Vins, Olivier, Richard and Helen
One night while in Paris Vins had some friends over for a little gathering. His long time childhood friend Olivier, also from Paris and another couple, RIchard and Helen. RIchard is part French part New Yorker living in Paris after years in Long Beach with his wife Helen. She's half French and half Greek now living in Paris. Everyone was very nice and we all had a great time. Of course we always feel like we're talkig too much but we half of them all laughing with our hijinx here in Paris and back home. We talked politics, music, amongst other things. We wished we had taken a photo with everyone but we totally forgot, DAMN. We did exchange email with everyone so hopefully we will be able to keep in contact with everyone. They're always welcome at our place!

Random Shots

Mike in front of the Peugeot dealership on Champs Elysees

Tiny elevator... Its a process just for the both of us to get in.

Paris Part Un

2010-03-19T11:01:00.000-07:00

My friend Vins picked us up from the airport in Paris. I met Vins while vacationing in New York City years ago. Since then we've kept contact. About 5 years ago Vins came to the US with some friends of his that were in a band, The Hellbats http://www.hellbats.com/index02.html After the Hellbats left Vins stayed a few more days with his then girlfriend Laeti. Ever since then he's been telling me to come to Paris and stay with him. Well the time finally came and Vins put us up in his newly renovated apartment no questions asked. He even went one more step further and even left the place to us for the entire week while he stayed at his girlfriend Natalie's place. Talk about a great host!!!

Our first night was mellow and we really needed it. Vins and Natalie made us a home cooked dinner along with Natalie's friend Helen. We ate cheese and drank wine while Natalie cooked. Everyone was so nice and Vins even gave us a lesson on stinky French cheese. After dinner Helen, Natalie, and Vins all left because it was pretty late so Elaina and I passed out pretty quickly. Mostly because of the long flight, but we couldn't wait to see what was in store for us tomorrow in PARIS!

Here's "our" new kitchen. It may look small but it has everything you need in a kitchen.

OUR view of the city from OUR livingroom

View of the Eiffel Tower from the bathroom
View of the trees from Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise from the bedroom.

First Day out

Step 1: figure out how to get out of the building--Vins gave us the key to his apartment along with the sensor key to gain access to the building. We looked like two idiots because we couldn't hfigure out how to get through the exit door. People outside were walking by staring at us through the glass doors. We couldn't help but laugh at ourselves. It seriously took about 2 minutes before we realized there was a button we had to push to get the door to unlock itself. The button said "porte" which means "door" in French.

Step 2: Figure out the subway--The subway was really confusing at first, mainly because we didn't understand what anything said. After about 10 minutes of walking back and forth, staring at maps, and dodging the rush of people we figured it out... we're pro subway riders now.

Pissers

We've seen 2 people doing the number 1 on public streets in one day. I know, were were excited too. The first was an old man on the steps to La Siene and the other was an angry bum (yelling at the air) near the opera house. Good times.

Cafe Kitty
We ate at a cafe next to Notre Dame. Mike's leg was greeted by a handsome kitty. It must have been the owners cat, he was nice company. That would not happen back home but we liked it.
Notre Dame Cathedral
This church is absolutely gorgeous and the architecture is amazing for its time. We felt blessed to have the opportunity to see such a beautiful structure created for God's purpose. We sat in the center and enjoyed the architecture for a while.

Joan of Ark... I heart her

Checking out the detail in the ceiling
Cimetiere du Pere Lachaise

The largest cemetery in Paris (118 acres), its a monstrosity for any cemetery and its just a short walk from Vins place. All the graves are above-ground graves and each very different depending on the time and style; there were no two alike. We spent 2 hours walking the cemetery studying the tombs like you would art. We still had probably 60% more to see but this place is just too huge.

Jim Morrison

Random Shots

Just outside the Metro

Being a weirdo in the street.

La Siene

Bon Jour!

Having coffee at a cafe overlooking Notre Dame

Even Robot (our travel companion) enjoyed a coffee.