Dubrovnik - The Pearl of the Adriatic

Well, that journey from Rome to Croatia was interesting, to say the least. First, a three hour train ride. Then, figure out the buses in Bari (still in Italy!) to get to the port (photo at left - KK is happy to be on the bus finally). Next, figure out how to get on ferry...that took some serious charade-playing!

While waiting in line, the sign for the ferry did not inspire much confidence in the boat's ability to make it to its destination, see why below! Finally on the ferry, and our best option for comfortable space are these slightly padded chairs that are reclined almost 45 degrees. Doesn't sound too bad does it? No, not until you wake up every 15 minutes to shift position cause the chair is hitting all kinds of pressure points. Really, it would have been much better if we'd been drunk. Anyway, needless to say, we didn't get the best sleep last night.

But we finally made it to Dubrovnik and it is beauuuuuuutiful. I'm not sure that we will be coming back to the States. From the balcony of our guesthouse, which turned out to be kind of in the boonies, you can see the port and all the little boats bobbing on the azure blue water. Of course, in order to get to said view and corresponding balcony in guesthouse, we have to walk up the world's longest staircase. Times 2.

Photo, left: hoofing it up the countlessly unending stairs to our guesthouse

The old city is inside the old city walls, and its basically just a huge castle complex, only my perfect fairy tale! And it has lots of beaches. And lots of shopping and seafood. We are happy as the clams we just ate. :)

Photo, right: the view from our balcony!

KK and I have gone to two different beaches, explored the finer points of the Dubrovnik bus system (imperative since we are lodged like 2 miles away from the Old Town and part of the on-foot journey includes a million stairs, and since we have figured out the bus, we only have to take 750,000 stairs!), eaten some meat! (eating in itself is victory for us, when we spent the first two days only eating once a day), found a lovely bakery that makes donuts with nutella inside, had way too much gelato, and walked around the gorgeous Old Town. Oh and sweated out about half our weight, only to drink it back in water from the fountains here.

Today we went on a boat trip to three different islands outside of Dubrovnik. The first two were tiny quiet little places, and I'm pretty sure the only reason we went there was because the excursion company had a contract with the tourist board of those islands to bring in business. Good thing we only had 45 minutes on each of those places. Then they fed us lunch on board the boat of grilled whole fish and zucchini...soooo good.

The last island was pretty great, had a nice sand beach (a luxury to have sand here!), so KK and I swam and laid out, and then spent a good hour searching for rock-skipping stones in the water. While we were sifting through the rocks we started finding sea glass, so we converted our search and managed to find a good handful of it, which we will find a crafty use for when we get home.

We reapplied SPF 50 today, twice, and I still managed to turn a little medium rare on my back. But it's not bad at all, and we have the remedy back at our place. Our plan for this 4th of July is to enjoy a picnic out on our terrace, we bought a bottle of Croatian wine last night, and some fruit today, and we are about to pick up some bread, cheese and ham. Yum! Oh, and KK and I have managed to find every Irish pub within range of our radar so far...one in Rome and two here. Cheap beer, too bad the Croatian beer tastes like Bud Light, all kinds of watered down. Sticking to the Irish Harp until I find a better substitute elsewhere. It will be a happy search, if we ever make it out of Croatia.  Not likely at this point....

Rome is Stillll Mellllting

This shouldn't surprise anyone, but uh, its freakin hot. Not, "we can deal with it if we wear comfortable clothes and sunscreen and drink water" hot, but "you are dripping sweat and feel so disgusting no matter how many showers you take hot.

So KK and I have developed a strategy: stay inside during the day or go where we know it will be cool.

Yesterday we went down the Appian Way, the ancient road out of Rome, to the catacombs of San Calixtos. It was delightfully cold down there, it made us so happy that we never wanted to leave. Unfortunately we had to. But while we were down there we learned that not even little KK would fit into those slots where they put the dead bodies - apparently early Christians were tiny little people because they did not have proper nutrition. Oh well, we tried. We thought maybe we could camoflage ourselves into the niches and get to stay down there longer that way, but no such luck.

My review of the Archeobus? Meh. Take it or leave it, really. And on a hot day, definitely leave it, because it is an open-top bus, with no bottom level, leaving you exposed to the sun for the duration. The commentary isn't that great, and they don't go around as often as the (much cheaper) local buses. So my advice would be to see that attractions you want to see on your own time, and take the local bus out to one of the catacombs on your own.

After a nap and a rinse, we went out to dinner with some of KKs friends from her program to watch the Euro Cup finals, which Spain won. The bar we were at wasn't very lively, but there was beer and cheap food, and it was air conditioned, so we were happy.

One thing about the food here though: to all you people who are like, "its Italy, how can the food be bad?", oh my friend, it CAN be bad! Not all Italians learned at their momma's hip the secrets to making that perfectly seasoned tomato sauce. Or they are trying their hand at some American or other foreign foods, and utterly miss the mark. If you want good food, (a) go where you see locals, or (b) use the 2 up and 2 over rule: from any popular tourist attraction, go two blocks up and two blocks over, into the neighborhood, and you can usually find some much tastier, and maybe cheaper!, food.

Today is our last day, and we really have nothing to do. We have done all the sights that we are willing to drag ourselves to (no more old piles o rock!) and are sick of pizza. Tomorrow we leave for Croatia!!!

Rome is Melting

Oh. My. God. It. Is. Sooooooo. Hot.

Thank goodness KK and I have done this city already. We don't have to feel guilty about spending the better part of the day inside. We walked around a bit downtown yesterday, got some lovely gelato and sat at the Piazza Navona and watched the people and talked. Three different guys came up to us, trying to "use our finger", i.e. so he could braid a friendship bracelet using our finger as its anchor point, tie it around our wrist and charge us 5 euro. They all had the same schtick: after we said no repeatedly, they would ask us "meow?", making fun of us I guess, and then KK and I would say (in unison, inevitably), "we are not cats!", and then they would be like "calm down, relax", but at least they would leave us alone. Annoying buggers.

After some more walking, we found the Abbey Theatre Irish pub, which had AIR CONDITIONING, so of course we had to stop in for a pint. I had some Harp - I've put myself in training for Ireland's beer. So that was nice and cool and cave-like.

Some more walking later, and we finally decided to eat dinner, circa 10 pm, like the Romans do. I had a salad!! And wine! A BIG glass of wine. Like a fishbowl big. And I drank it all - mommy taught me to never waste. I think I was leaning on KK a bit after that, weaving down the street. Somehow we were at the exact opposite end of the city from our lodgings, and getting back was a bit tricky, because it was night bus time, which are different from the day buses, so eventually we found a bus that went to Termini, the train station, and got on. KK caught a cab home, and walked very fast back to my hostel. End of Saturday.

Currently, we are both hanging out here at my hostel because it is hot as.....fill in blank. We have tickets to hop on the Archeobus at 3pm, so go see some catacombs (underground, cool places!). Then who knows. More air conditioned pub? Who knew an Irish pub would be our favorite place so far in Rome. Like I said, I'm glad that we have seen it all before so we dont have to worry about fighting the crowds and the heat to do something like the Colosseum. 

Another Pile o' Rocks in Rome

Soooo, what did I say yesterday? That I wouldn't go see another pile o' rocks? And what did I do today, just to drive myself crazy? Went to see a pile o' rocks, of course! Complete with church, another one of my "don't want to go into another one!" things. So I got two in one - piles o rocks and a church. Which had no redeeming value except that it was out of the sun.

Moral of the story: if you're in Rome, skip Diocletian's Baths, unless you are a really big bath nut. You will see plenty of things like the baths in other places, you don't need to bore yourself witless by adding this to the itinerary. Ignore what the guidebooks say.

It's 90 degrees here. HOT. I don't need hot water for my shower, even if they did have it. Give me a coooold shower and I'm happy. I have a "frozen water" guy that I go to every morning now, these are smart people - they freeze and sell full plastic water bottles, and they're the only people in the city I've seen that do this. I will happily give my left arm for cold water at this point, sawed off with a blunt spoon, its that hot. Seriously, whoever thought backpacking through Rome in July was a good idea should, well, go backpacking in Rome in July - with no shower!

Today KK came!!! Too bad I got myself all turned around on the metro and was 30 minutes late in meeting her. But I finally found her hotel and the only logical thing to do at that point was to sit in hotel and enjoy the AC, which they claim was on, but I am not so sure - I am still sweating, ew. And I found ants crawling on me while I was laying on her bed. Now we are out cruising the city. YAY KK!!!!

We did the only sane thing travelers can do when its this hot: get gelato and sit in a piazza to watch people. Piazza Navona is perfect for this, because it has fountains at either end, and sitting by one gives you the illusion of it being slightly cooler there. And gelato never tasted so good! Really should learn what all the flavors mean, since they are listed in Italian...on second thought, maybe not, I could be eating something like worm flavor!

All the artists were out on the piazza tonight, making for a festive air as the tourists wandered among them and some got taken for ride. Do they really think this is original art? I mean, did they not just see it in a souvenir shop on the other side of the piazza? No? Ok, well enjoy. I guess if you like it, buy it. Meanwhile, I will continue to feed my two gelato a day habit, mmm stracciatella....

Getting out of Rome - Ostia Antica

On my own in Rome, what to do, what to do?  I've already seen most of the city on our last trip here last winter, so I decided to get out of town to a place called Ostia Antica, which was the port for Rome back in ancient times, and was preserved by the mud that silted up the Tiber River. One of my guide books compared it to Pompeii, but I think the only thing to two places have in common is that they are super old.

Pompeii was so much more interesting than Ostia. Pompeii had actual buildings, and you could tell what they were - Ostia had half-buildings that used to be warehouses (photo at right). So uninteresting that your eyes just slide right over them. I don't understand how some archeologists can get some excited when they dig things like Ostia up, it's so repititious and mundane. Hmm, kind of like everyday life.

Photo, below: mosaic on a bath floor. Ok, this is cool, but there's only so many ancient mosaics you can see before your eyes cross permanently!

However, for a day to get out of the city, Ostia wasn't too bad. Quiet, birds and flowers, old piles o' rock. The biggest triumph of it all was taking the metro to the regional train all by myself, and back again.

Ok, one cool thing was all the graffitti on the trains. And for that matter, in every public space. But really, graffitti artists here take their work seriously, and they turn out some pretty amazing stuff, very colorful and original. I can see why the authorities don't clean it off the trains - they look so much better with the paint on them!

Photo, right: awesome graffitti on the trains

Day Trip to Florence - Definitely Not Long Enough!

Today we hopped on the Eurostar train up to Florence, and apparently in Italy, seat assignments DO matter. People are very defensive when they think you have taken their seat, which has not been my experience before in Europe. Oh well.

After some early morning craziness trying to find the bus stop to actually get to the train station (the signs lied!!), we made it to the train and eventually to Florence, where we were met by our guide, who thought he might make our day more fun by holding the sign with our name on it upsidedown.

This guy obviously knows his Renaissance art, architecture and Florentine history.  Our day was pretty much like this: walk quickly through tiny streets, stop for a second while our guide explained what we were looking out, retaining only the famous name he might have thrown out, move on quickly to the next point of interest, rinse, repeat. It was like the quick-and-dirty version of Florence, which is not a bad thing if you really only have a day to do it all, but its exhausting! Pretty sure that if there was a thief on our train on the way home he could have scored big with us, because all four of us passed out cold.

In all, we saw 3 big ol' churches, two mueseums, and so many paintings and sculptures that it makes my head swim just trying to remember them all. Botticelli and all those old artist types must be rolling in their graves when they find out that the average tourist spends like a minute looking at one of their masterpieces. Don't get me wrong, everything we saw was pretty amazing and beautiful, but that is a LOT to absorb in one day.

Some highlights:

• The huge market with all its hanging sausages and produce and cheeses and wines and pasta hanging in bags. So pretty with all the yummy smelling food. I could eat my way through there pretty easily, just point, pay, smile and say grazie!
• Pizza and wine for lunch! At this point I was not tired of pizza yet.
• Seeing Michelangelo's David and actually understanding why its so important! That guy has really big hands, completely out of proportion with his...you know.
• The leather school, where monks have made leather products for a reallly long time, and we got to see one of them at work embossing gold leaf onto a leather-covered box type thing.
• Walking through the narrow twisty streets at night, watching all the people, seeing everything lit up and decorated for Christmas, looking at all the medieval architecture.
• Nutella on fresh hot waffles!! Who knew it could be so good?
• Sitting down on the bench in the Uffizi Gallery (where all those paintings are, including Botticelli's) after walking through the whole thing.

SO, it was totally worth it, but I am really glad that KK is doing her study abroad there this summer, because I would really have liked a little more time to shop and wander on my own. So my plan is to meet her there before her program ends and we go on our big adventure!

First Day in Roma!

The Hoeys are on a family vacation to Rome!!

Our apartment is fabulous. The guy who met us there that owns it was a little overly enthusiastic in pointing out places on the map he gave us. We now know where 2 wine shops, 3 grocery stores, all the churches, a pastry place, 3 restaurants, and the Colosseum are. Apparently that's all that matters. Everything else, meh, not so much. :)

We have a kitchen that is stocked with milk, juice, coffee, pastries, and everything else a kitchen needs. The shower is a little intimidating - it has 2 different heads, and then jacuzzi jets going down the side, should be interesting in the morning! Took a few minutes to figure out how to flush the toilet, forgot about the big button camoflaged in the wall. We have a dining room too, and a bookcase stocked with every Rick Steves' Rome version that has been printed. And there is a Christmas tree!! Its such a cute place, I love it. Its up on the fourth floor, and I'm the only one in the family who will walk up all the stairs at the end of the day.

Today we had tickets to ride one of those Hop-On Hop-Off neon green double-decker tourist buses, so there's no mistaking that anyone seen on this bus is a tourist. As soon as we board, Dad promptly nodded off. KK and I went up to the top level, and even though we could see everything, we froze  so we went back down to the bottom, and were lulled to sleep by the elevatorish music playing in the background. How bad is that? Passing out while actively being a tourist on our first day in a place we were so excited to finally be in. Oh well.

Photo: Eskimo KK freezing on the top level of uber-conspicuous tourist bus

We got off at the Colosseum and since I had the guidebook, I ended up being the tour guide for the family.

Photo: KK's schtick this trip is to hug the columns...one down, 999 to go!

The Colosseum was pretty incredible. So incredibly old, and yet still standing. I mean, not many groups of people can say that they've built something that has lasted anywhere near that long. The Greeks. The Egyptians. The Inca. The Celts in Britain. And that's about it. Makes you wonder, 2,000 years from now, will there be any evidence of our civilization? Will there even be a viable planet for people to live on? Or will it all be lost and people will be living on Mars.

So back to the Colosseum. Nice place, what with all the brutal gladiator fights, getting killed by big scary aminals and other gladiators, who were all slaves by the way, pretty much fighting for their lives. Yeah, nice. And free entertainment too - it was the emperors' method of mob control. Keep the people happy by letting them watch other people get killed in bloody sporting matches and they won't revolt against you. Really nice. Good people those emperors, really compassionate.

A lot of the marble was pulled off the facade of the Colosseum to be used in the Renaissance by popes and the rich people for their summer homes and big massive churces and necessary things like that. I guess not much changed in those 1500 years of civilization.

Photo: Dad, the tired tourist, fell asleep standing up at the Colosseum

We wandered around for the rest of the day, enjoying the sunshine and just basically getting to know the city. Stopped at the Castel St. Angelo, which is only a few blocks away from our apartment. If that name doesn't ring a bell, go back and read Angels and Demons. Tomorrow we're actually going on a walking tour that comes straight out of that book, nerd alert! We all totally re-read the book before the trip. Dinner ended up being soup from a pouch (Mom thought ahead and brought soup mix, what genius) and whatever was stocked in the fridge for us, pastries probably. So sleepy!

Photo: Seesters in front of the Castel St. Angelo