The British Life

We arrived in Florence on Christmas Day. Marcella, the lovely hostess of our tiny four-room hotel, greeted us with a kiss on each cheek. She was terribly excited that I knew some Italian and proceeded to give us maps, instructions and advice in alternating Italian and English. Since it was Christmas Day, pretty much everything was closed. Luckily, I had asked Marcella weeks ago to make us lunch reservations at one of the few open restaurants nearby. We had a delicious meal of chianti and pasta (of course) and then spent the rest of the day wandering. We circled the cathedral, admiring its pink-white-green marble facade. Next, we walked across the shop-lined Ponte Vecchio to admire the views and then went on a hunt for pizza! We finally found a small restaurant that was open and the pizza was excellent. We thought it was interesting that the crust seemed to get thicker and thicker the further south we went in Italy. The popularity of mushrooms and truffles/truffle oil also seemed to increase, much to my delight.

Breakfast was not included in our hotel stay but since it was Christmas Marcella had left an entire pannetone in our room for us! It was so sweet of her and we enjoyed that pannetone three mornings in a row. One morning we washed it down with some mimosas we made in our room. Cake and champagne - the breakfast of champions! Our second day in Florence we went straight to the Uffizi to immerse ourselves in Italian art. Our audio guides were extremely helpful, pointing out the progressions and stylistic changes from one period to the next. After admiring about all the Italian paintings we could handle, we had lunch at a tiny restaurant with about ten tables whose owner bustled around in the kitchen while his son waited tables. We got to taste some genuine Tuscan food like ribollita, a hearty soup made with beans, bread, and vegetables.

After lunch, we saw that the line at the Accademia was pretty short so we seized the opportunity. It was quite the cultural day. Seeing Michelangelo's massive statue of David in the Accademia was a major highlight for me. We hadn't gotten audio guides but were able to learn a lot just by shouldering up to other tour groups to listen to their guides' explanations.

Now, let's talk gelato! Of course, we tried gelato several (okay, many) times in our travels throughout Italy. It is truly delicious, especially if you look for shops a bit off the beaten track that make it in-house. But the really remarkable thing about gelato is the variety of flavors. Some of my favorites are: walnut, hazelnut, pine nut (all the nut flavors were amazing), coconut, cannoli, apple, dark chocolate, orange and cinnamon. Dan doesn't have a big sweet tooth but he tasted all the flavors with me and really liked the sour cherry.

On our last day in Florence we got up early to explore the huge outdoor clothing market and covered food market. The outdoor market featured the most leather I have ever seen in one place, while the covered food market boasted fresh fruits and vegetables as well as stalls making and selling fresh pasta. Some of the pasta was so beautiful but I figured it would get pretty destroyed in our suitcases. After lots of wandering and popping into random churches, we got on line to climb the dome of the cathedral. This was the first Renaissance dome, built by Brunelleschi. Now, let me just say that I was a bit surprised by what we saw when we got to the top. The inside of the dome is painted with religious scenes and from the mosaic floor of the cathedral you notice the big Christ figure sitting happily with people around him. Well, then you get to the top and realize that on the other side of the dome are fiery scenes of Hell and its inhabitants. It's actually a painting called "Last Judgment" by Giorgio Vasari and Federico Zuccari. We continued climbing until we reached the top of the 463 steps and were rewarded with beautiful views of Florence. Finally, we visited the Duomo Museum to see some of the cathedral's original artwork. We learned that many cathedrals display copies of paintings/statues, keeping the originals safe in a neighboring museum.

The next morning, we downed a few espressos before hopping onto a bus to Siena. It was sad leaving Marcella, who kissed us goodbye and told us to come back in a few years with some bambini.

I thought of Edgar Allen Poe's famous poem many times during our stay in Venice. There are 149 churches in Venice which means there are also a lot of church bells. Several times per day, in a beautiful domino effect, one bell would start ringing and then several others would join in as if competing for attention. We rarely used an alarm clock because we knew the bells would signal the start of our day. Venice's churches are beautiful. We managed to see quite a few of them and the best part was seeing great works of art where they were meant to be instead of hanging up in a museum.

We definitely lucked out with the weather. The worst flooding to hit Venice in 20 years occurred exactly 18 days before our arrival. Thankfully, things had returned to normal by the time we arrived. It was chilly but we were just relieved that no one was water-skiing in St. Mark's Square.

For several reasons, Venice took the prize as our favorite of all the Italian cities we visited. The best food we had was in Venice - fresh seafood, super-thin crust pizza with fresh mozzarella and the most delicious Valpolicella we've ever had. My favorite dishes were the simple ones like spaghetti with steamed mussels and olive oil or a platter of mixed seafood with lots of warm bread. Whenever possible, Dan and I ordered the piatto del giorno (dish of the day) thinking it would be freshest; this turned out to be a wise decision. We also tried to stay away from restaurants whose menus were printed in three different languages opting instead for small, family-run restaurants with menus in Italian. I learned a lot about Italian food. Contrary to popular belief, Italians do not dip their bread in olive oil nor do they use a spoon to assist in spaghetti twirling. And everyone (I mean everyone) carries around a box of pannetone on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Who knew? They also don't have 4-course meals at every sitting as the restaurant menus would suggest. While most people do have a first course (pasta) and second course (meat or fish), Dan and I found that having some antipasti plus a pasta dish or just splitting three pasta dishes was plenty filling and a heck of a lot more interesting. We probably ate enough pasta to fill a bathtub.

Something unique to Venice is its cicchetti bars. Cicchetti are to Venice what tapas are to Barcelona. These delicious tiny snacks could be crostini with roasted red pepper or baccala (salted cod), mini-sandwiches of prosciutto, hunks of cheese, or really anything you can put on a toothpick. One of the highlights of our time in Venice was our cicchetti crawl. We went from bar to bar, sampling the house red wine and various cicchetti. It was a great way to explore new areas and just soak in the atmosphere.

In cities like Venice whose measly population of 62,000 residents lives off of tourism, discovering the true culture and traditions of the locals can be challenging. But I'm proud to say that, with an excellent guidebook, lots of walking and a little luck, we managed to do just that. Of course it helped that we had six nights to explore the city, happily getting lost in its narrow, winding backstreets. There are no cars so walking is extremely pleasant as long as you watch out for dog poop which for some reason is everywhere (maybe because backyards are non-existent). It's pretty easy to get lost in Venice, especially when you wander off the beaten track and I was quite impressed with Dan's navigational skills. The combination of Dan's navigational skills and my Italian really did make everything so much easier. I can't imagine having spent so much time in Italy without knowing some Italian. My vocabulary is not very extensive but just being able to read menus and double-check train information was invaluable. Plus, I felt the locals appreciated the effort. I got a lot of smiles.

Our search for non-touristy areas meant a lot of walking but it was well worth it. We found a coffee bar with live jazz. We found a restaurant with Italian karaoke. We found free Christmas concerts in churches and sat in on an evening Mass. We found a Christmas market where Prosecco was being handed out for free. We found the hidden non-touristy section of the Rialto Market with fresh vegetables on the carts and fresh fish guts on the ground. We found a wine store that filled our one-liter water bottle with red wine for 2 euros! I also discovered the local drink - the spritz. It's white wine with seltzer and aperol and it quickly became my drink of choice.

Having said that, some touristy things are certainly worth doing. We enjoyed exploring St. Mark's Square (St. Mark's Basilica, Doges' Palace, the Campanile) and another highlight of our trip wouldn't have happened but for the advice of a nice lady in the tourist information office. "Musica a Palazzo" features five actors, four musicians, and only about 35 other audience members in a wonderful production of The Barber of Seville. The show is performed in a beautiful old palace and the audience members have to move from room to room with the actors and musicians as acts end and sets change. It was so much fun. We also took a boat ride up to the island of Murano to go to the Glass Museum and window shop.

The grand finale of our stay in Venice was Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve at St. Mark's Basilica. Of course the Basilica was packed. We were grateful to have seats for the long but beautiful ceremony. Scripture was read in several different languages to accommodate the tourists. Dan and I were quite impressed when the priest himself managed to repeat his words of farewell and good wishes in five different languages at the end of the Mass.

The next morning, we reluctantly said "Arrivederci!" to Venezia and hopped on a train to Florence.

After 18 nights in Italy, Dan and I returned to our home in Brooklyn the evening of January 6th. It felt a bit strange at first but we are slowly settling back into our lives in New York. All our traveling has given us a great appreciation for other countries and cultures but it has also given us a newfound appreciation for New York. I was very excited to see my health food store, my gym, and the new Trader Joe's that has opened up in our area. The bagels from our neighborhood bagel store tasted even more delicious than I'd remembered. And I couldn't stop smiling while riding the subway again for the first time, as the diversity of the city with its professionals, its punks and its crazies really registered with me for the first time. I probably looked like one of the crazies that day but that's okay. That's the great thing about New York. You could run naked through the subway cars and the expressionless passengers would look up for maybe two seconds before going right back to reading their newspapers and self-help books.

Poor Dan had to head back to England for meetings this past Wednesday. Just when his body clock was starting to readjust, he was plopped on a plane back to the land of fish and chips. The good news is that right now (Saturday afternoon) he is on a plane back to New York. Hopefully he is watching a great movie or sleeping peacefully. I spoke to Dan yesterday but decided NOT to tell him that an airplane landed in the Hudson River a few days ago. I thought that bit of news might interfere with his ability to sleep peacefully while flying over an ocean.

As for me, it's been a week of cleaning, unpacking, organizing, and more cleaning. Dan and I are in the process of doing some major reorganization. I hate clutter; I believe that less is more especially in a New York City apartment. Dan, not so much. I still remember the look he gave me after we first moved in together and I said, "But babe, letting go of things we don't need is liberating." However, I think living overseas for six months made us both realize how little we truly need to be happy. Sure, we had shipped some things over to the UK, but we also left behind a LOT of stuff in our apartment that we never missed. Since returning to NY, Dan has been great about going through boxes in the basement and getting rid of whatever we don't need or use. Classes at Brooklyn College start January 26th, so I have one more week to work on our home before switching to study mode. This semester I will be taking a Human Physiology course and a Human Nutrition course which I'm excited about. No classes on Fridays and no excruciating 3-hour labs - hooray!

So now it's time for me to share our Italian adventures with you. It is a formidable task. We spent 18 nights in Italy and visited 7 different cities. There is a LOT to share. It's also challenging trying to remember all the details after the fact. But I will do my best to paint a picture of our wonderful experiences in this incredible country. The first entry will be about Venice, our favorite Italian city, where we also happened to spend the most time. Photos will follow.

We hope to see you all very soon! I've been able to meet up with my parents and with a couple of my girlfriends this week to chat and catch up which was fabulous. I even stopped into Ellen's Stardust Diner to see a few of my old singing-waitress friends who still work there. (Those milkshakes are sooo good.. ) We look forward to catching up with more of you soon.

Stay warm!

Love,
Carolyn

This past weekend, Dan and I enjoyed 3 marvelous days in Barcelona - lots of Gaudi, lots of sangria and not a drop of rain. Perfection! Barcelona is definitely a big city, so we were careful with our personal belongings and tried not to pull out our touristy maps too often. We actually saw a guy try to steal someone's purse, but I think if you are smart, Barcelona is perfectly safe. I mean, this woman was sitting in front of an Irish pub with her purse on the back of her chair. First of all, who goes to an Irish pub in Barcelona? (Dan and I had a debate about this.) Second of all, hold on to your purse, lady!

After dropping off our bags at the hotel, Dan and I took an initial stroll from Placa de Catalunya down the touristy but fun Las Ramblas. The avenue was lined with tourists, street performers, flower stalls, and gift shops. There were also lots of animals for sale that in my opinion shouldn't even be allowed to be kept as pets (ferrets, parrots). After giving the caged animals a few sympathetic looks, we veered off into La Boqueria, a very impressive street market frequented by tourists and locals alike. I saw a stall named "Organic" so of course I made a beeline for it since it was lunchtime anyway. We washed our lunch down with the most delicious juice I've ever tasted - fresh strawberry & coconut juice mixed together - soo yummy. If it hadn't been so crowded, Dan and I would have taken even more photos because not only does the market offer fresh, reasonably-priced food. Its displays also happen to be beautiful. Upon exiting La Boqueria, we wandered through the Gothic Quarter - Placa Reial, Placa de Sant Jaume and, most notably, Barcelona Cathedral. The cathedral was larger than I'd expected and the really cool thing about this cathedral is that it has its own cloister/courtyard with a fountain and some resident geese.

By this time, I was just dying to walk down to the beach, so we continued south down Las Ramblas to Port Vell, walking along the boardwalk and admiring the views of the water. Then we carried on and hit the jackpot - Barceloneta Beach! Now, it wasn't 90 degrees or anything, but it was still so nice to be able to just sit and relax on a beach together. It was warm enough to take off our coats, so we were happy.

After all that walking, it was time for a sangria break at a tapas restaurant called La Bombeta. We stood at the bar and drank some delicious sangria and even tried the house specialty - bombetas, which are fried potato balls served with a spicy sauce on top. Between the food at La Boqueria and the bombetas, we were so full we ended up skipping dinner altogether.

Now it was time for another long walk - to see the Magic Fountain at Montjuic. Let me tell you, this was a long walk and it probably felt even longer because of all the walking we'd already done but it was definitely worth it. This fountain is incredible. Every hour on the hour the fountain is lit up in all different colors and the water 'dances' to music (ranging from Chariots of Fire to Jurassic Park to opera). After the long walk back to our hotel, we were definitely ready to call it a night. We could have just taken the metro (subway) but Dan and I are pretty stubborn about walking whenever we can because we always end up seeing so much more and getting a lot more exercise (which we definitely needed after eating fried potato balls).

The next morning we got an early start, heading toward La Sagrada Familia. We were dismayed by the presence of McDonalds and KFC in Barcelona but I have to admit that we were happy to come across a Dunkin Donuts because it served delicious, normal, filtered coffee. Yay!! The coffee is pretty bad in the UK so it was a special treat for us. We shared a big cup of joe and a big plain baguette as we walked along Passeig de Gracia. What can I say about La Sagrada Familia? It's amazing. It's really hard to convey the amount of detail in Gaudi's work. The Passion facade and Nativity facade have been completed, but it is supposedly going to take another 50 years to complete the work that Gaudi started. There was a great little display in the cathedral explaining how so much of the architect's inspiration came from nature. We were also able to climb up one of the towers.

From La Sagrada Familia, we doubled back to La Pedrera to take some photos and then headed to Casa Batllo for a tour of the interior of this crazy, funky house that Gaudi built. There are few straight lines in this house. Everywhere you look there are images from the sea - waves, curves, bright blue/green, etc. I don't know much about architecture, but I would describe his style as a very modern cross between art noveau and Dr. Seuss. Circulation and light were extremely important to Gaudi, so there were skylights and ventiliation systems everywhere, as well as an actual "courtyard of light" in the middle of the house, running from the skylight all the way to the bottom floor of the house. Yep, I could definitely live in a Gaudi house.

After a Gaudi-filled morning, we headed to Barceloneta where we ate lunch outside in the sun. Actually, the sun was so strong that I was getting burned so I had to ask the waiter if he could give us another table. This was interesting, since I don't speak a word of Catalan (which seems to be a crazy mixture of French and Spanish). Luckily, most people speak some Spanish as well so my feeble "Tiene una otra?" (Do you have another?) while pointing to our table along with "El sol esta fuerte y soy muy blanca" (The sun is strong and I am very white) was enough to get our point across. He immediately brought over a big sun umbrella and we were all set to enjoy our delicious paella. Once again, we ate so much that we just skipped dinner.

Full of paella and sangria, we walked along the beach and then to Parc de la Ciutadella. Two guys were having a tap-off in the gazebo which was cool and there were also tons of jugglers/acrobats/performers practicing their acts on the grass. Our final destination was the Picasso Museum, which is set in some old Gothic mansions. Dan and I realized that we are just not big fans of cubism but we were still glad we'd gone. I enjoyed looking at Picasso's paintings from the blue period and rose period - the ones painted before he started messing with people's faces.

To finish out the evening, Dan and I enjoyed a beer and a hot chocolate outside Cafe Zurich in Placa de Catalunya. (Take a wild guess who had which beverage.) The hot chocolate was very thick - basically melted chocolate in a cup, accompanied by a croissant which I was instructed to dip into the chocolate. Pretty evil.

Monday morning we took a bus to Gaudi's Parc Guell, which might be my favorite spot in Barcelona. This park was originally created to be part of a "garden city". Well, that city didn't happen (only 2 houses were built before he lost funding, I think) but the Parc is just stunning. Dan and I sat on the mosaic winding benches and checked out the cool houses that looked like they were made out of gingerbread. Then we just sat on a bench, sipping cava while admiring the gorgeous views of the city. Street musicians provided a lovely soundtrack for our experience in the parc.

After a lunch of tapas near Placa de Catalunya, we headed back to the airport. We were sad to leave. I told Dan that we should return when La Sagrada Familia is completed 50 years from now. :-)

Dan and I enjoyed a lovely weekend in Amsterdam. The people were very friendly and most spoke at least some English which made things very easy. The thing that surprised me the most about Amsterdam is the sheer number of bicycles in the city! I'd say there are at least 20 bicycles for every car in Amsterdam. It makes sense. The roads are narrow and parallel parking usually entails parking at the edge of a canal - one wrong move and your car takes a nosedive into the canal! Most bicycles have a spare seat on the rear tire. We saw a lot of men cycling their dates out to dinner - very cute. I saw people cycling in high heels, sneakers, boots, you name it. People also attach big carts to their bicycles that can carry groceries and even children! One woman we saw had a baby strapped to her chest and a toddler sitting in the cart. It might sound dangerous but since there are so few cars it's a lot safer than it would be in, say, Manhattan. You do have to be careful walking though, because there are so many bike lanes that can be mistaken for sidewalks if you're not paying attention. The only other main system of transportation is the tram, which we didn't experience since we just walked everywhere. Even though it was quite chilly at points, there wasn't a drop of rain the entire weekend so I consider us very lucky.

After a one-hour canal cruise to get acquainted with the layout of the city and get a look at the canal houses and houseboats, we started off toward to Dam Square. Something Dan and I really enjoy when we visit a different country is just walking through neighborhoods, through street markets and past shops, listening to the language and observing the locals. So instead of taking the most direct route down Damrak (a very touristy boulevard) we took the long way around, walking through the hip, pretty neighborhood of Jordaan. We encountered two street markets (lots of cheese and bread) and passed by lots of cool houses. When we got to Dam Square, we saw a KFC, Burger King, souvenir shops etc so we decided to quickly move on after a quick stop in a department store so we could use their restrooms.

In the department store, we were surprised to see giant puppets that seemed to be in blackface (see the photos). We both kind of stared and I said, "What is that all about?" Well I just looked it up on the internet and here is the deal. The story goes that Sinterklaas had a trusty servant who would climb up and down the chimneys for him to leave gifts for the children. I can't remember the servant's Dutch name but they refer to him as "Black Peter" because the soot from the chimneys turned his skin black. The story developed and so now Sinterklaas is said to have hundreds of "Black Peters" that help him out around Christmastime. Understandably, there was a bit of controversy about this some years back but I guess people just accept it now as tradition.

After checking into our hotel, we walked the two blocks to the Heineken Experience. I was so glad I'd gotten our tickets in advance because the line was insane (as was the line for the Van Gogh Museum). We were able to go right in. Unfortunately, the Heineken Experience was not much of an experience at all. We all know how much Dan likes beer, and even he didn't like it! The problem is that it's not a working brewery anymore so they tried but failed to create an interesting museum/interactive experience. The only thing I found remotely interesting was the display of old Heineken advertisements and the explanation of how the beer is actually brewed. I won't even go into the "Brew You" experience, a Universal-Studios-esque ride that tilts you back and forth on a platform while you watch a short movie that seemed to produced with ten-year-olds in mind. We drank our free beer (well, Dan drank our free beer) and fled to a local hangout I'd read about called Burger Meester where we scarfed down a couple of very good Dutch burgers.

Even though it felt like much later because of how early we'd gotten going that morning, it was only 6pm, so we decided to stop for a drink before heading up to Rembrandtplein to check out the nightlife. There didn't seem to be many tourists there and the waitress was kind enough to help Dan pick out a good Dutch beer. I don't think the Dutch drink a lot of wine, because they were out of all three red wines listed in their menu. Luckily, their house wine was actually pretty good so I was happy. We had fun just relaxing, watching the bikes zip by outside and looking at the free postcards on display near the bathrooms. (A lucky few of you might receive a weird Dutch postcard in the mail...)

After that we saw a supermarket and decided it would be fun to go in and check it out. I picked up a pack of stroopwafels. I had read about these things and they are just as delicious as I'd hoped. Imagine caramel sandwiched between two round flat pieces of buttery waffle cone. Soo good.

Journeying on to Rembrandtplein, we passed by a seedy-looking bar called "Smokey" twice. As we wandered by a third time, the bouncer handed Dan a coupon for free shooters (shots). I must have had a look on my face because the bouncer said to me, "Just try it." So finally we decided to venture inside. Well, this was the weirdest experience we had in Amsterdam. The place was dark and in the back were pool tables and people smoking. But in the front, it was very chill and kind of empty and something was being projected onto a big screen. On the bottom of the screen were the words, "Smokey's - for triple x enjoyment to the max." But on this screen, they were playing - wait for it.... - 50s and 60s music videos. That's right. We had (well, I had) our free shooters of genever (Dutch version of gin but flavored) while watching The Supremes, Barry White, and the Beatles. Now, maybe that club does indeed get seedy late at night but at that moment, it was perfect for us. It was so fun watching these old videos, especially as they started showing 70s and early 80s ones as well, that we ended up staying for about an hour! When "Locomotion" came on, I offered to show Dan the routine I used to do to that song in aerobics class when I was 11 years old, but for some reason he didn't want me doing aerobics in the bar. After so much walking we were ready to hit the hay so we headed back to our hotel, stopping every once in a while to stand on a bridge, look at the water below, and steal a kiss.

I don't know if this is a typical Dutch breakfast, but our hotel breakfast the next morning consisted of sliced meats, cheese, bread, hard-boiled eggs, yogurt and cereal which was perfect for me and Dan. And the coffee was actually regular filtered coffee (not espresso with water) which was exciting. They also had chocolate sprinkles on the tables, which apparently the Dutch like to sprinkle on their buttered toast.. ? We got to the Van Gogh Museum right as it opened and were able to go through the museum at a leisurely pace. Afterwards, we took a walk through Vondel Park before heading to the Carousel Pancake House for a delicious lunch. I had poffertjes (small, delicious, thick Dutch pancakes) with fruit and ice cream and Dan had Belgian waffles. My meal was definitely better but I guess that's what Dan gets for ordering Belgian waffles in a Dutch pancake house!

Then it was time for our 3:30pm reservation at the Ann Frank House, which was incredible. We were actually able to walk through the Secret Annex and stand in the room where Ann Frank wrote her diary while she and her family were hiding from the Nazis. The bookshelf that hid the entrance to the annex is still there. The information was quite good and the whole experience was very moving. They even had a video of an interview with Otto Frank (the only Frank who survived the war).

On our way back to Central Station, we ended up walking through the Red Light District which I found pretty sad and shady; we definitely did not linger. As our final stop we went up to the 7th floor of the new Amsterdam Public Library to enjoy the views of the city at night. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to look in the cheese shops and souvenir shops selling gigantic wooden shoes. After experiencing some AWFUL turbulence in our tinker-toy Flybe plane due to high winds in Southampton, we arrived home safe and sound Sunday night. As Dan said, "God bless our pilot!"

We hope you are all well and we look forward to seeing you when we return to New York in January!

Love,
Carolyn and Dan