Platypus Hunter Down Under!
While I’ll be chilling at home for my summer, this little chicky…..
will be flying off to Hobart, Tasmania in a couple week for a 6 week exchange. Check out her blog here.
karen
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Wizarding World of Harry Potter
What self-respecting ten year old doesn’t wish for their letter to Hogwarts to come in time for their eleventh birthday? Well….. mine got lost in the mail, but I found my way to the castle regardless!
Going to the Wizarding World for March break was a magical experience. Even though there are line ups for absolutely everything, it’s all part of the experience! The Dragon Challenge ride was my favorite ride. There are two tracks that interweave each other. Each ride is slightly different (one is faster and the other has a couple more loops) and my sister and I went on each one 4 or 5 times (because walking around in your robes didn’t already top the cool factor). I would definitely recommend going on each of the tracks.
Butterbeer is also worth mentioning! It’s super sugary yellow liquid that tastes like….well….what you would expect butterbeer would taste like! It also comes with a curious foam that doesn’t settle…. I bought mine during my lunch at the Three Broomsticks and I did enjoy it, but I didn’t go back for another right away.
karen
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Spring in(to) Manhattan
Was briefly in New York today and the weather was absolutely lovely! I haven’t been to the Big Apple since my school trip in spring of 2008. It was nice to visit again, albeit the visit being very (very) brief. It was literally a cab ride, pop into a bookshop, walk a few blocks, grab a coffee and lunch and go! (With a little bit of sitting/standing around Penn Station and Madison Square Garden).
Other mentionables, I will be changing the way I blog, just because I just don’t have time to do daily blogs when I’m away, as of late. Also this way, I can post when it’s more convinient for me and it will always be a surprise when something new will show up. Posts will also be less concentrated.
xo.karen
PS I will finish that last post on Italy!
On an Evening in Roma
Title reference to a song on The Lizzie McGuire Movie soundtrack (which I will admit I still listen to on occasion).
Upon arrival in Rome via Eurorail we were greeted by people trying to sell us tours and postcards and mind racing to thoughts like, “what was my last credit card transaction?? Do I still have my wallet??”. Yes, Rome is just that kind of tourist city. Even in the winter.
Promptly after arriving in Rome we set off on our “Imperial Rome” tour. AKA all the old things in Rome that all tourists are obliged to see. The Coliseum had a surprising number of people. It was the day after Christmas and everything had been closed, so all the tourists in Rome decided to flock to the Coliseum (me? exaggerating?? pshh, no…The number was just larger than I expected okay?). The Coliseum was really cool and it was great to see the iconic monument up close.
Inside the great stadium.
The Ancient Roman Forums. Our guide told us how the Romans just build on top of everything. Instead of clearing the land, they just build on top of whatever is there. There is a church where they kept on rebuilding new versions of it on top of each other and if you go in and walk down, it’s like walking through time. We didn’t go, so I’m not sure of the name of that church. But how they discovered the Roman forums was because everything else had been built on top.
At many of the churches around Rome, they have colorful marble mosaics. All the pieces of marble come from different things they dig up when excavating land. If they find old columns, they might slice it up into thin circles and then use the circles for the floor of the church they are building.
The Trevi Fountain at night. It was much bigger than I thought it would be! There were also a lot of people for night time, which I found surprising, so I can’t imagine what the crowds would be like in the summer.
We went on a tour of Rome and visited all the major religious landmarks.
The ceiling was covered by the first shipment of gold Christopher Columbus brought back from North America.
xo.karen
The Fashion Capital
Milan is definitely my favorite city I visited in Italy. The shopping was amazing (flagships everywhere!!) and the people were all very friendly. A definite plus was how easy the streets and metro were to navigate. The food was also consistently palatable. For our first night in Milan we went to the Teatro Alla Scala to see a Christmas concert. It was a really cool experience because we got box seats right next to the stage. Literally. The concert was incredible and so were the acoustics in the theater.
Outside Teatro Alla Scala. We experienced a lot of rain in Milan. No snow though! Ergo, no slush (yay)!
Outside Duomo di Milano.
By the time we got to Milan we couldn’t figure out why every large square with a Cathedral called the Cathedral a duomo. They didn’t have domes! Our first duomo was the Cathedral of Florence, which has Brunelleschi’s big dome. So that’s where the association came from. We later learned from Google that Duomo is the Italian word for Cathedral.
We also went on a walking tour of the city and the most amazing thing we saw was Da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Having seen the Mona Lisa, The Last Supper is much, much more impressive. People generally expect the Mona Lisa to be larger than it is in real life and a lot of it is over hyped. My experience of The Last Supper was quite the opposite. The painting is enormous! Why don’t people talk about this painting more? Just getting to the painting was more exciting than the Mona Lisa. For Mona Lisa you just walk through the Lourvre, and you might have a hundred other people swarmed around the painting. For The Last Supper there was a limited number of people that could go during each given hour. You walk through a series of doors that works a bit like a human lock system. Everyone has to be in the room, the door behind you closes, and then the next door opens. And there are cameras everywhere!
Anyhow, the painting is amazing. The history of it as well. Da Vinci didn’t use fresco because fresco requires that the painting is technique that has be be done relatively quickly, else the plaster would dry out. Frescoes are naturally better preserved because the pigment is inset into the plaster. For The Last Supper Da Vinci decided on a more experimental technique that allowed him more time. Unfortunately the first signs of deterioration appeared only a few years after the painting was completed. Since then, the history of the damage the painting has gone through is unbelievable (including a doorway built that cut through the lower middle section). I’m very glad the painting has been successfully restored in recent times though so that we may hopefully enjoy this painting for many decades to come.
We went to Christmas mass at the Cathedral, which was an experience to remember. We had no idea what was being said/sung, but it sounded lovely, nonetheless. A few years back we went to Christmas Mass at Sacré-Coeur in Paris and both times we’ve gone to mass in a foreign language, the sights and sounds were all really something to behold. Nothing is open Christmas day except for the shops at the train station. So that’s where we went! Above is a picture of the great entrance into the station.
This is the square where the cathedral is. There was the galleria shops through the arch and a great big Tiffany Christmas tree. There is actually a Tiffany boutique underneath the tree and there was always a line up to get in. I went in (who wouldn’t want to find out what’s inside a GIANT blue Tiffany box??) and it was just like a miniature Tiffany store, with a number of people appropriate for a (small) flagship. Just for the record, they had really plush carpets in there.
Post on Rome in a couple days!
Happy New Year to all!
xo.karen
I’m on a boat!
Venice! Venezia! The city built on water! We arrived by train from Florence and we immediately started exploring!
The streets are incredibly windy and narrow. I was always told not to go down deep dark alleys, which is what some of the streets looked like, so it was almost counter-intuitive in a sense to turn onto some of those streets. Navigation didn’t make sense to me at all. In most other cities, if you walk in the general direction of your destination, you’ll likely end up in the right place. In Venice the roads may lead to a dead-end, abruptly turn, or fork off. My family had issues getting to Piazza San Marco even though there are signs for tourists pointing to the right road (except when the road forks, of course). We asked a man on the street and he happened to be going in that direction so we followed him.
Window of a costume shop.
It’s a funnily angled photo! The bell tower in the back is actually tilted.
“Oh, yeah, just parked my boat over yonder in the lot.”
What really struck me was the lack of cars. You go in knowing that there won’t be any there, but it really is odd.
Rialto Bridge.
The shops all lined up on both sides of the bridge.
A book shop that sold leather bound notebooks of all sizes. I love stationary places like this, so I bought a leather bound notebook of medium size with a colorful purple cover.
Next up Milan!
xo.karen
Under the Tuscan Sun (…nvm, it’s on holiday)
My day started off with the depletion of my stock of lozenges, I didn’t think I would need on this trip. We went to the local farmacia for some more. They did not speak English and it was hard to explain what I was looking for. My coughing fit came in handy and then they were like “ohhh!”. Yeah. After we walked off with our yellow package, I read in a big red circle on the front of the box, “sedativo”. Which looks suspiciously like the word sedative. I pull out the handy smartphone translator and it turns out sedative, but translated in conjunction with the string of words I found on the side of the package it could also mean suppressant. As we headed off on our half day tour of Pisa I had a big debate over whether or not the lozenges had sedative properties. As I did not fall asleep on the bus, I figured, it probably meant suppressant.
So off we were on our half day tour to Pisa. Home of the leaning tower of Pisa. What I didn’t know from many pictures of the tower, was that it’s part of a three piece cathedral. The square consists of a baptistery, a cathedral and a bell tower, aka the leaning tower of Pisa. We arrived and the sidewalks and streets were morbidly icy. I’m just glad I didn’t fall on my derriere. Came close. Although, not all visitors were so fortunate. In hopes of ascending the tower, we stood in line, with everyone else. They were running half an hour behind. We asked the nice Italian man in front of us. He didn’t speak English, so he mimed a broken leg. This was confirmed when we saw the girl emerge from the base. The whole tower is really heavy, made completely of marble. The weight is also why the tower is leaning. The soft soil was too supple to support the heavy tower. The tower, is also, not simply leaning in a straight line. During the construction they had noticed the slight angle to the tower and started building the tower angled in the opposite direction, in hopes of correcting the angle. But alas, all they have now is a banana shaped bell tower, who’s bells cannot ring because the harmonic motion of the heavy bells would be detrimental to the tower over time.
The next day we had a full day tour of Tuscany. We were suppose to go on this tour on the Thursday, but it was canceled due to the snow fall. It started off in Sienna! I wish I had more time there. It’s built on a hill, and all the streets and alleys were all so old and lovely!
This picture shows the nice mix of snow, rain and fog we’ve had the pleasure of enjoying throughout Tuscany.
We had lunch at a local organic vinyard and then we were off the the ancient town of San Gimignano. As it’s not exactly peak tourist season, the streets were relatively empty, and few shops were open. For me, this leaves a great opportunity for exploration. You can wander around without having to dodge other people taking photographs or pushing through a crowd. 
We found this little courtyard and I love how it felt like no one had been in it in ages.
And after San Gigminano, the third stop on the tour of Tuscany, was Pisa! Again! We initially thought, “hey! We can climb the tower today!”, but they sold out. Only a limited number of people can go up the tower each hour and they had reached the quota. We learned that the tower is so heavy, it will probably only remain standing another couple hundred years. Not much of a concern of mine, but it was interesting to know.
Instead of taking the tacky photos of someone holding up the tower I thought it would be much more entertaining to take a picture of other people trying to hold up the tower.
More later,
xo.karen
Four Seasons Hotel Firenze
Old places are undoubtedly cool. Just imagine all the people who have walked through the same hallway you’re walking through, looked at the same paintings, or sat on the same steps. I loved how Four Seasons Hotel Firenze had so much history. The building took nearly a decade to restore. At one time it was owned by the Medici family, so no doubt the walls are full of original frescoes and friezes from the Renaissance.
Above each arch in the lobby is a beautiful relief carving.
It’s hard to see the details of the room. But you can get the feel of what the rooms are like. The most amazing part of the rooms that I wouldn’t have thought about until I stood there, was the smell. It was a subtle antiqued smell and you really feel as if you’ve taken a step through time.
This ceramic floor was made in the late 1490s. It has never been restored and in the corner the artist’s signature still remains.
What I liked about the whole building was that none of the architecture was changed. There are doorways that lead to nowhere and some empty door frames, just like the one on the right. They are just there.
No two guests rooms are exactly alike. This is a dining room.
Once a year the private garden of Four Seasons Florence is opened up to the public. They had over 7000 people come in 2009 and in the early hours when I was in the garden, lots of people were coming in. There was hot chocolate and roasted chestnuts for all and a stand of local vendors selling linens, blankets and towels.
People in costume for the children coming to visit.
Icicles melting.
Drip drop. Drip drop.
The pool beneath fills with echoes of drops.
Circles spreading outwards.
This is the swimming pool. You can’t tell from the picture but the water is green. It was a big deal to put a pool in a centuries old garden, so what they did to make it blend in better was to make the pool green.
More later,
xo.karen
The snow followed me…
Hey Meghan,
I landed in Italy! Florence! Firenze!
(There’s a little green island with a tiny white flag in the river. People were golfing.)
The Cathedral of Florence.
The relief sculpture squares on the doors of the Cathedral by Ghiberti.
It’s a bit of a winter wonderland at the moment. It’s all lit up and super pretty. We arrived at Four Seasons Hotel Firenze two days ago and at the entrance we found a big silver dispenser of a hot drink and my sister and I are like, “hey! free drinks!” So we pour some into our cup. It smelled spicy, kind of a dark red, kind of fruity. And we’re like, “yum! This is delicious!” Then my mom gets some. Looks at the sign, “Vin brulée”, and says to the doorman, “Is this wine?”. The doorman replies, “Sí!” So every time we come back to the hotel, we have a nice hot cup of wine. I’m totally legal here. Life is good. Turns out the hot wine is a German tradition adopted by the Italians. I’m not quite sure what’s in it still…
They had apples at the front desk. They all have shooting stars on them, just like this.
We went to see Michaelangelo’s David. No pictures, but I did get miniature souvenir I said I would buy. (HA!)
Yesterday as we leave the Museum Uffizi, this white substance starts to fall from the sky. Not so much snow as a really tiny hail, freezing rain hybrid. After about an hour of shopping and what-not, there was over an inch of snow (it was really coming down).
We were about to head back to the hotel and we’re just about to call a taxi when, just down the road a taxi is stuck in snow and can’t climb up the little sloped part of the road. I figured, these people don’t have snow tires and they drive like crazy people (zip, zip, zip, bus?, pass in the lane of oncoming traffic, zip, zip) so, I felt a lot safer walking. I picked up the map and started learning Italian road names. Apparently, I have a knack for reading maps. By the time we had walked back to the hotel, we had snow built up on all the folds of our clothes. My purse looked like I left it out in the snow and snow had built up on it.
There are some very distinct differences between snowing here and snowing in Florence. When it snows, we continue going about our daily business. When it snows here, cars can’t drive. I looked out of the window and saw the owner of the car parked across the street from the hotel was pushing snow off his car and putting on snow chains. I say pushing because the snow was a half a foot tall on the roof, and that’s a lot of snow to be considered “brushing”. I realized, even though we live in Canada, land of the snow, we never actually walk in it. We walk through it to get to our car, then we walk from the car to the building, then back to the car, etc. Here, people walk and bike and ride their little scooters. Not snow friendly concepts. People carry umbrellas in the snow here. We just throw on a hat, if anything. Also, we only see snow on surfaces that people and cars don’t go on. If you think of Toronto, the roads and sidewalks are free of snow, either shoveled to the side or melted with speckles of salt. Here, everything is blanketed. Like, FWOOMP! SNOW!
I can honestly say I haven’t walked through so much snow since I went dogsledding. So much walking! So much snow! Half a foot is a lot. We were shopping and we were chatting with the store lady and she said she hasn’t seen as this much snow for 25 years.
This is a picture I took during our early morning snow-shoeing expedition. We were suppose to go on a tour of Tuscany and we were suppose to meet outside the train station. The cab companies wouldn’t pick up their phones, so we had to walk. It was just after 7:30am.
I noticed that people walk a lot of the roads around here. It was probably because there weren’t many cars out today and everyone shopping just migrated onto the street.For lunch we went to this sandwich shop called I Due Fratellini. Doesn’t look like much. It’s only a little store front. But it has a huge line up. The sidewalks are a foot wide so people were mobbed on the street. The panini sandwiches they made for us were so good! Not only did they have a huge line-up, they’ve been serving sandwiches since 1875.
Anyhoo, I’ll let you know how Pisa goes!
xo.karen
PS. Restaurants of noteworthy awesomeness:
(I had the most amazing risotto with asparagus cream sauce)
(I had the most delectable turbot in the world. And an equally amazing dessert; pineapple carpaccio with panna cotta and this mysterious, but delicious herb-y green sorbet)
Did I mention I’m going to Italy?
Dear Eryn,
I’m leaving for Italy tomorrow.
I have packed a few books. All hardcover. All very essential. I haven’t read much lately, so I’m going to read as many books as possible. You’ll be happy to know I didn’t forget my toothbrush. Although the one time I did forget my toothbrush for a trip, I did buy a satisfactory replacement. One of the best toothbrushes I’ve ever had. I’m really excited to go to Italy. All the cheese….pasta…..gelato….food…. I have a good feeling about this. I’m most excited for all the history and art history. I like that stuff. A lot. You may have noticed.
Did you know that you can see what movies they are going to be playing on the plane online? It used to be a surprise, but now I’m armed with the knowledge of what’s to come. There aren’t that many movies I’m looking forward to in particular. The Notebook won’t be playing. That’s one of my favorite plane movies. I’ll probably end up watching all their episodes of Being Erica they have (and possibly working on some essay). The Doctor Who Christmas special comes out when I’m away. We’ll chat about it when I get back.
You’re off on your own adventures in Asia! Wishing you and your family all the best and safe travels! See you in two weeks!
xo.karen
