I'm addicted...

pensto pens. It's true. Actually, I always have been. Ever since I was a kid, I've had this unnatural love for Office Supply stores. Oh, the smell of the packaging, the feel of the new pen in your hand. Pure bliss. Lately, my pen lust has had a resurgence. Thanks to GlueStick Girl, I found these awesome looking set of 20 pens on DickBlick.com. Thanks to Ali Edwards, I've found that I LOVE .03 tip pens, and that these pens are was just the icing on the cake. I can't wait for the box to arrive.  Plus, those pens are not alone in the box. Mmmmm...I can't wait! So, what else is in the box? More pens! Okay, I'm not exactly sure what I ended up getting. I can't remember, and I can't access my order right now, but here's what I think I got. These Koh-I-Noor Nexus Studio Pens. The description of them says,

"These velvety fine line art pens are ideal for sketching, writing, drawing, and designing. These pens work perfectly with watercolors, and as a precision sketching tool. "

How Could I resist? No, really, How? I think Chris really wishes someone would tell me how. I'm pretty sure I got a set of these Itoya Nikko Permanent Pens. They write on all kinds of things! Here's what the website says: "These fine-point pens write on virtually any surface, including film, metal, plastic, glass, wood, and cellophane. " Once again, how on earth could I resist? AND, they're waterproof.

I also had a couple of things in my cart that I didn't end up getting. Not to worry......I will. I wanted some of these really cool looking Pentel Metallic Brush Pens. Look at what they say about them, "these tapered brush pens feature a pump button that maintains a constant flow of acid-free, water-resistant ink for uninterrupted creativity." Oh, so very cool. And, how awesome would they look on black paper? Definitely a need, not a want.

I don't think I ended up with these Faber Castell Pitt Artist Pens, but right now I'm really wishing I had. So, good 'ole Dick will be seeing me again soon. Most of the colors come in a brush tip only, though, and I'm not so sure about the brush tip, so I guess I'll have to order a set of the black ones that come with one of each of 4 different tips.

I also HAD to pick up some acrylic paints. I ogled them when we went to the Dick Blick in Iowa City with Kristina and Eric, but didn't get them. Then, I got to try them when I took Shimelle's class at the CK convention here in Tulsa, and I LOVED them. (I'm alo something of an acrylic paint addict...I keep trying to find good ones besides Making Memories, which are $2 a bottle - and they're colors aren't that great anyway). Now, I MUST have them, and they're on sale right now so........I got the basic set. One each of Deep Red, Medium Yellow, Medium Blue, Medium Orange, Deep Green, Deep Violet and White. Did I need them? Not really so much, but I HAD to have them, and you have to start somhwhere, right? So, I have officially started my collection.

On a related note, yesterday I was helping my mom clean out her office. I was actually working  on my old office, which has basically been collecting dust since I moved out after Chris' and I got married. While sneezing my head off, I happened across a set of pens, and almost all of them still work. Yippee!!! They're by Stabilo, and I originally found them when I was living in the Netherlands and they quickly became my fave postcard writing pens. LOVE 'EM! And, if that wasn't cool enough, they're in this really cool roll up pack with little bungee cords that wrap around it. Heaven.

Sometimes it's so much fun to be a geek!

Finally

Finally, I'm starting to get my massive amounts of scrapbook stuff under control. I have a lot of stuff. No, really, I mean A LOT of stuff. It really is an obsession. I MUST HAVE IT ALL. This in turn creates the problem of storing everything. We got me a table from my fave store, Ikea, a couple of months ago, but storage was still an issue. So, last week, Bob and I went back down to Dallas. This time it was only for the day, but Mary came and hung out with us and it was tons of fun. We spent over 3 hours in the Ikea. Can you imagine? And, I spent a ton of $$, even though they were out of the two main things I went down for. I bought a HUGE bookcase and tons of jars, and already need more. How is that possible?

We got home around 10:30, and I conned my sweetest husband in the world to putting the bookcase together that night so I could get started on the organizing. I'm still not quite "THERE" but it's seriously getting better. Actually cleaning and putting things away when you use/buy them will help too. I can't telly you how many times I said, "Thank you," to Chris for staying up till midnight working on the bookcase. We both love it.

So Sweet

I have the sweetest husband. Christopher said is so stinking sweet, sometimes I'm not sure how I ended up with him. But God smiled on me, and I did, and man am I glad! Chris has been feeling pretty crummy with the allergies the past few days. He even had to stay home from work. Unheard of! Sunday afternoon, I worked on my crafty endeavors, and he "hung out" (read: slept) on the day bed while we watched football. Okay, while I watched football. The puppies must have known he was feeling crummy because they were all over him and constantly on the bed.....even Mr. Aloof and Independent himself, Scooby.

And, if you don't have enough proof that Christopher is super sweet, the other day, for no reason at all, he brought me flowers. He does that occassionally, and I love it. He gets me tulips whenever he can because I love them so, but he always gets me the best of what they have. Sure, they're grocery store flowers, but who cares? I think it's awesome!!!

Bad Influence

Donna Downey is a bad influence. I was catching up on reading blogs this weekend and happened to come across this on hers. I was intrigued.

Rome is found

I found the missing Rome book. Just now. How handy is that? Don't need, won't need it, but of course, I found it. Where? In the living room, on the floor, under a bag. Perfect! Perfectly typical. Maybe if I could get this house in order, such things wouldn't happen. But, where would the fun be in that?

And....We're Back!

We're home. Home Sweet Home Actually, we've been home for a couple of days. I can't believe how fast time has flown since we've been back. Faster, it seems than it did while we were gone. Our trip home was wonderfully easy. I couldn't believe it! We had a few nervous moments that we wouldn't make our flights, but in the end, no problems!

When we checked into our hotel for our last night in Munich, we asked the woman (turns out she's the proprietor and AWESOME) how long it would take to get to the airport. She told us 40 minutes. See, we were a block and a half from the train station, and there is a train whose last stop is the airport. We knew we could just take that train, but we didn't know how long it would take. 40 minutes? Okay, so we planned on that and went about our last day. Then, as we were turning in for the night, we asked the man manning the front desk again, just to make sure. He said 20 minutes. After 2 weeks in Europe, we totally should have known better (there were like 14 stops between the main station, where we were, and the airport), but we decided the man must be right. How wrong could we be?

So, we got up at 6:00 (acutally, pre-6:00) and got ready and packed. I actually got to blow-dry my hair. Awesome! We headed down to breakfast at 7:00. It was a full German breakfast. Not the skimpy Italian kind with one roll and some butter & jelly (although Chris says the cappuccinos were out of this world everywhere in Italy - I, of course, wouldn't have a clue). No, this was the 6 different kinds of rolls, cheeses, spreadable cheeses, meats, jellies, yogurt, cereal, sweat breads, juices kind of breakfast. Yum, yum, yum! I totally enjoyed myself. And, of course, we spent longer than we should have. We didn't head out of our room until 7:35 ish, it took a while to check out (there were two pain in the neck German-speaking guys taking FOREVER), and then on the way to the train station, we needed to buy more postage at the automatic postage machine across the street from the train station.

We ran out of coin Euros and the machine didn't take paper, so we had to stand there trying to figure out what to do, while Chris was running the machine in German (yes, there was an English option). All the while, I'm looking at the 12-foot tall clock on the front of the train station. It's now 7:48. HOLY CRAP! We have to get going. We finally purchased enough postage for only 4 postcards (which left us with a couple to hand deliver - sorry guys), and booked it to the train station at 7:54. We had to make our way all the way through the train station, and when we finally got down to the S-bahn track, we had to run b/c our train was just making it's way to the platform. So, we made it on the 8:02 train.

At least we were on the correct train, right? Yeah, well, that was one of my consolations. Remember, our flight left at 10:00. At home, you're supposed to be 2 hours early for international flights. I was keeping in mind that Europeans don't have quite the same rules for flights that we do. They just kinda show up for flights sometime before take-off. But still....we're Americans. They like to jack with us. So, I was having moments of, shall we say, trepidation. I was NOT going to miss this plane. We were sitting right in the middle of two sets of doors on the train, each with a map of the stops on it, but weren't actually close enough to either to read the stops and know for sure where we were and how far out we were, which certainly didn't help! And my bag is totally heavy, so I am NOT about to get up from my flip-up-like-a-movie-theather-seat to check it. Of course, Chris is like, "oh, we're totally going to make it. We have nothing to worry about." Um, yeah, shut up! I really knew we were going to make it, but I had this vision of us getting denied and being stuck in Munich another day. Not that I don't like Germany. Don't get me wrong, but by that time my mind had wrapped itself around the fact that it was time to go home. Time to go home and cuddle my puppies and have some Taco Bueno with a real Diet Coke (sorry, Coke Light ain't the same) and a free bathroom around every corner. I informed Chris that I was going to be, "a 100% pissed-off girl," if we missed this plane. He said I was allowed.

Well, obviously we're home, so we didn't miss the plane. We RAN out of the train station, up the escalator trying to find the Delta counter. That was the hardest part of our day. It's funny, these European cities cram their people in. Everyone is right on top of each other, but boy, do they build their airports in a super-spread out fashion. There were 6 "halls" as they called them for check-in (A, B, C, D, E, and what else would make sense.....Z), and they were quite far apart. When we finally made it to Delta, there were 2 German speaking guys checking in ahead of us who, of course, were taking FOREVER. They have a little Ikea-sized desk at the front of the line where they check your passport, ask you security questions, and make sure you're on the plane that they're currently checking in for. Then, you go through the line and check in and get your boarding cards and give them your luggage. The check-in girl totally hated us. Chris suddenly decided we should try to carry on our backpacks - along with the other 2 carry ons we each had. You're kidding right? Well, we could try to repack them quick. (we only had a 1 hour layover in Atlanta, where we had to go through customs, and he was getting worried) NOT gonna happen, send them through! So, she did. Then, I asked if we could get our boarding cards for Atlanta too. She'd already done it. But, Chris refused to leave the desk. "Don't we need to wait for her to do our boarding cards for Atlanta?" He wouldn't believe they were in with the others. Finally, he did, and in true Chris-Bull-in-A-China-Shop fashion, he tripped all over our bags and the counter. I know she was glad to see us go. I won't kid 'ya 'bout it, though she was somewhat rude/superior acting in her own right (hello? you work the gate for an American airline in Germany? what do you have to be snobby about?).

So, we made it to passport control/security where there was only one person in front of us. Should be a piece of cake, right? Turns out, she's military, and her husband died in a motorcycle accident back in the States last week, so she's coming home to bury him. Now, she had 2 children with her who had a different name than she did because they were from her first marriage, and she was divorced from their father. The German agents just could not wrap their minds around the fact that she was their mother and had a different last name. Totally could not handle it. It probably also didn't help that the mom was white and the kids dad had obviously been African American. They don't seem to really understand that concept. They wanted all of the father info and then got even more confused b/c she was divorced, remarried, and the step-father had died. In the middle of it, the guy who was supposed to take only EU people took us and we went through with no problem. As we left, the agents were making the mom show her the family's military ids. Now, I'm all for security, but each of the children and the mom had an American passport plus military ids. Do you know how hard it is to counterfeit a US passport now? Darn near impossible. Let the woman through. Turns out, they did, and they ended up sitting right behind us on the plane. The mom was (understandably) in a daze for most of the 9.5 hour flight and didn't seem to mind one iota that her child was kicking the back of my seat for hours on end. I tried to give her grace, but really, I was ready to strangle that small child. Why me? Why does this ALWAYS happen to me?

Anyway, miraculously, we made it through to the gate by 9:00. An entire hour before the plane was scheduled to depart. Yay us! So, we went to the gift shop. And proceeded to spend 49.80 of the 50.20 Euros we had left. We went home with 20 cents. Too funny, huh? We decided, we could change it, but we'd loose money on it anyway, so let's spend it. I got an Oktoberfest t-shirt for 10- and we got an awesome stein that we'd seen at the Oktoberfest for 56- for only 29- (yep, you read that right, the airport was CHEAPER), and a little shot glass stein for.......well, for the rest. Too fun! Finally we made our way to the gate where I tried to take a picture, but before I could get it done, some power-trippy 18 year old yelled at me. Hello? Totally legal, but didn't want to argue with her b/c I wanted on that plane.  Said girl started to announce that we'd be delayed due to traffic, but in the middle of it was told to shut it. Wish it could have been me. And we boarded on time. In true European fashion, Chris and I stood off to the side and without really meaning to, jumped ahead of everyone in our section to get on the plane.

They boarded the plane from the front to the back. Damn Europeans. They're like teenagers. They have to do things their way even though our tried and tested way works better. We were, of course, at the back of the plane (where they apparantly put people who purchase their tickets 9 months ahead) and I was lucky enough to bomp every single person with the water bottle attached to the backpack I was wearing. They loved me! We were 30 minutes late leaving the gate, and we KNEW we were going to miss our connection in Atlanta (better their than Munich), but we made up tons of time in the air and were actually early. Compared to the horrific Air France flight (did I mention I'm NEVER flying them again?) on the way over, this flight was a dream. There was more space, and it was temperate. Chris even got cold. Just the way a flight should be. The flight attendants weren't French with those quintessential French attitudes (come on, you know what I'm talking about). It was all around a good flight. Oh, except Chris said his meal stunk. Mine was great, though. We were a little surprised at the stewardesses (no stewards). They all obviously had a LOT of years of service, if you get my drift, but they weren't that friendly nor upbeat. In fact, a couple of them were pushy broads. No matter, we watched our 3 movies and the special on Queen (I was in heavan) and were happy. Surprisingly, I'd never seen any of the 3 movies. How often does that happen? It was fun, b/c one was Bewitched with Nicole Kidman, and I refuse to go put one dime in her pocket, so I don't tend to see her movies, but it was really cute. I'd totally watch it again.

So, we made it to Atlanta. But not before I 100% stumped the flight attendant with a question about the Immigration/Customs form. When you are family members traveling together and have the same last name, you only have to fill out one form, but it asks how many family members are traveling with you. Do you include yourself and answer 2 or not and therefore answer 1? Totally stumped her. We decided 1 b/c it would be the easiest to explain. Turns out, it wasn't an issue. Customs was a breeze. The nationals line was way shorter than the visitors line, and as we came up to it, they directed us to the other side where there was NO line. Except there was a TON of people coming from the other side and the people ahead of us were totally dilly-dallying, taking their own sweet time. Making me CRAZY. Trust me, if I'd been in a car, they would have been honked at. Remember, we had 1-hour to make our connection, and it was ticking by now, baby! So, Chris and I finally managed to skirt the slow folks and made it to a line with just a  couple of people in it. When I looked over and there was a line with no one waiting an a guy who just finished up. We all know I'm the lousiest line picker on earth - totally NOT my forte, but I got lucky this time! I headed over there and yep, it was a real line that we could go through! Hot dog! We were the first people from our plane down at the carosel. Of course, we were some of the last people on the plane, which means it was first off and at the bottom of the pile of luggage they were putting on the carosel. But, we finally got it, handed in our semi-confusing form (she barely even looked at it), smiled sympathetically at the guy whose 15 bags were being gone through inch by inch, handed off our luggage to be reloaded on our next plane, went through security (who couldn't have cared one iota less that we had glass), and booked it to the airport train to get to our terminal. After an excruciatingly long potty break for Chris, we finally made it to the Wendy's near our gate. We were really hoping for Pizza Hut (we'd been served vegetarian pizza on the plane and had a hankering for the real stuff....although the plane pizza wasn't that bad), but were totally willing to settle! We made it to our gate in plenty of time, talked to some guy from Columbia, SC who was going to Tulsa on business, got on the plane and made our way to our seats in row 19...the last row on the plane. We were cursed with lousy seat assignments on every flight. On this tiny plane, the stewardess slides out a seat from the back wall and sits in the aisle, right in front of the lavatory door and practically touching the passengers on either side of the aisle. She was a lovely gal, originally from Jamaica. The guy on the otherside of the aisle had been in Equatorial Guinea selling nutrional supplements (he's from Claremore). Very interesting!

Finally, we were home. A half an hour early no less! I called my mom from the plane. She still hadn't left to pick us up. We collected our now extremely heavy packs from baggage and didn't have to wait but a few minutes for Bob. She ferried us off to El Tequila for the best welcome home dinner ever and then took us to our puppies. While we didn't want the vacation to end, it was good to be home. Good to have puppy breath on our faces (if you don't have dogs, you won't understand) and listen to normal radio (not Euro-trash) and watch Fox News and be assured of a hot shower, (and more importantly, a toilet whenever I need it) and the list goes on and on and on and on.

I will tell you one thing. I now know why so many European women don't shave their legs. Never mind the fact that only prostitutes did it for years and years. Nope, it's because their showers are an average of about 2 feet by 2 feet and enclosed with walls. Lemme tell ya, there's NO was this non-limber gal could make that stretch!

Oh, and I know you were all worried....every single stitch of our glass made it home safe and sound. And there was a LOT. That includes Chris' purloined liter mug which was packed in his checked backpack and our very important Munich mug from the Starbucks.

We're already thinking about where we should go next year. Chris says no matter where we go, we need to start with a week in Vernazza.

ahhhhh....Munich!

so, we hoofed it around Munich this morning looking for the Starbucks, when all along it was right in front of us! It was about 8:00 as we were wandering, and it was just us. I started remembering that Monday is the "things-are-closed-day" and wondered if that was it (turns out things really are closed, including Dachau - oops!). Then, I started wondering if maybe today was a holiday, and that´s why we weren´t seeing anyone. We got to the Starbuck´s around 8:45, and they weren´t open. Um HELLO????? They open at 6 (or earlier) at home!

After a quick walk around the block to avoid the crazy drunk guy who wanted to talk to us, they finally opened, and I was able to totally confuse the Germans with my desire for a latte lacking in the espresso. Interesting note, for drinks with espresso in it, they don´t have venti - only small, tall, and grande. For all other drinks, they have tall, grande, venti. Weird. So, we spent the next 2 hours writing postcards in the Starbucks, totally enjoying ourselves and asking them tons of totally stupid questions. Turns out it is a holiday, but not because of the end of Oktoberfest like I thought. It´s a national holiday which meant that EVERYTHING was closed ALL day. We really wanted to get Chris a pair of Birkenstock clogs, but nobody was open. The good news was, though the Oktoberfest was still on. Today is actually the last day, not yesterday. Well, yesterday was the last day, but for the last several years, they´ve carried it on one more day - I guess for the locals to enjoy. So, after checking into our hotel and finally having a shower, we headed out to the Weis´n (that´s what they call Oktoberfest). Did I mention it was rainy and COLD all day yesterday in Venice? Well, it was, and it was even colder here this morning. I mean COLD (what I like to call "butt-a$$-cold), and then the drizzle started, and it drizzled all day, eventually turning into rain. What a pain, and it´s still COLD! So, we spent a couple of hours at the Weis´n. We even got into one of the tents. We could have stayed, but the layer of cig. smoke was getting to me within the first few minutes, so we moved on to the same restaurant we went to last time.  It was perfect!  We bonded with some non-English speaking Germans over some beers, and they laughed at me as I took pics of our food. It was great fun. But then it was time to move on. We walked around a bit more buying me a hat - I´m going to show those Tulsa Oktoberfest goers what it´s all about! - and Chris a cool-and-the-gang stein. Oktoberfest was cool, but you have to be inside to drink the beer, so we moved on to the Hofbrau Haus. BTW, we totally trainn hopped today. We didn´t buy tickets for the U-bahn (the subway), but our Eurail covers the S-bahn (above ground metro), so we decided to be stupid Americans. Again, we´re going straight to tourist hell!

Hofbrau was too much fun....again. Not to worry, I didn´t drink as much this time, we´ll make our plane tomorrow! We happened upon an empty table, and soon a Dutch couple and an American couple joined us, and we had a wonderful time talking, drinking, and eating. Chris made friends with an Irishman at the table next to us who apparantly really liked the drink and took a liking to me. He told Chris he was afraid to say anything about me to him, though because he knew Chris could squash him in an instant. He was just sure Chris was a football player. Too funny! We also met a Hofbrau regular who essentially owns his seat. That´s his, baby. From what I could make out, he comes in every day!

So, here we are, checking our flight status and the veracity of a tale some American told us that you can´t take glass as a carry-on, which is great b/c we have a TON of it! Chris just happened upon a liter beer mug in the train station, so we have that, plus we bought me a 1/2 liter mug and a ton of "Murano" (none of it has the stamp) from Venice. I will be a seriously happy camper if they try to take it away from me. Chris checked the FAA website, and it says nothing about glass, so we´re assuming it´s okay.

We fly out at 10 in the morning. We´re sad to see it end, but glad to get back to some of the things at home, especially the puppies, my mom, our friends, the ever-present bathrooms, the breakfasts that consist of something more than a slice of bread, regluar showers, our own bed....you get my drift. We´re already talking about how we´re going to get back to Italy!

Right back where we started from

So, we´re back in Munich...Barely.  (remember, they have funky keyboards here, so if you see any stray Zs or Ys, forgive me). And I would just like to say that I´m extremely happy because I will soon be on my way to a Starbucks for my vanilla latte with only a half shot of espresso, and extra pump of vanilla and a pump of caramel. Oh yum Yes, we were in Italy where they have the best coffee ever, but see, I don´t actuallz like the taste of coffee. You can see my dilemma. So, we´re giving them time to get open, because as per usual, we´ve arrived at some ungodly hour in the morning, not to mention.....late. Shocking though it is. Every stinking train we´ve been on that originated in Italy has been late. Every single one. !

I know know I said our last night train (Rome to Venice) was the worst ever, but I hadn´t gone from Venice to Munich yet. Seriously, worst night train situation EVER. We made our reservations yesterdaz morning, thinking we were ahead of the game. Yeah, everzthing was full. Everything. Well, we´ve heard that before, so we kept at the guy, telling him we HAD to get to Munich. Didn´t matter how, had to get there. So, he told us take a train to Verona (sorry, thought it was Padua) and then switch to another train at 1:00 in the morning. But see, the train we were on was going to Munich, so we thought we didn´t have to actually change. Yeah, we were wrong. There  was another train leaving at the same time (although they were both late) and both stopping in Munich. Our original train ended in Nice, the train we switched to ended in Munich. What a nightmare. There were already people in our seats. The train was seriously oversold. Don´t even think we didn´t make the people leave. I wasn´t even caring if I was nice about it....just wanted our seats. We got them and then had person after person try to get them. HA!!! We were in a 6 seat compartment (3 on each side facing each other), and the whole compartment ended up being full with 5 not-so-little men and me. It was hellacious! There wasn´t enough room, and my already tender back got jacked up. Then, people kept coming in and out turning on the lights and whatnot.

The sleep was nearly non-existent. Chris tried to get us off at the wrong station. He heard someone say the next stop was Munich, so he woke me up and off we went. Well, that crazy German-Italian speaking crusty old guy did´t have a clue, and rather than try to get back settled in our compartment, we just waited in the hallway, and within minutes the guy we had to kick out of our seats came with his younger cronie and started smoking.....in the Train Car right next to me and my allergy ridden self and, get this.....right in front of a NO SMOKING sign. And, the Deustch Bahn guys kept walking right buy and not saying anything. Can you say grumpy Jamie? We moved cars. But, we´re here, and we´re glad of that. It´s cold, though. Really cold. Thank goodnes for my fleece stocking cap! We came to the internet cafe to make a hotel reservation. We made one months ago - the first one I made, in fact, but when the time came, we couldn´t find any info about it. So, we came back for our last night in Europe with no reservation to speak of. But, good óle Rickey Steves, we checked his book, got online and now have a reservation 2 blocks away for tonight. Yay!

On another note, I didn´t get to finish my entry last night. See, I was seriously doing the potty dance. You have no idea what it´s like to have to go the bathroom until you have to go (and I mean GO), and you simply can´t. There isn´t anywhere. Thankfully, in Venice they have public bathrooms all over with signs to get you there and everything. The first time we used one, we were outraged that it was 1 Euro per person - that´s $1.20! For the bathroom! But, when you´re desperate, you´ll do anything for a bathroom, so.......we paid that 1 Euro several times.

Anyway, Venice is truly enchanting. on Sat., we went to a church across the lagoon from St. Mark´s. Very cool. There were monks singing in the apse (I think that´s what it is called) and was just awesome. Now, I know I use that word a lot, but I mean this in the truest sense of the word. It was awesome. Awe-inspiring. We were awe-struck. Had to sit down for a while and just listen. There were great views of the city, and a bell tower that you can go up in, but as we were walking over to it, they closed the church for an hour, and we never got back.

We did play with the Pigeons in St. Mark´s  square, though. It was freaky at first, but cool. You buy bird seed (unopopped popcorn) and sprinkle a little to get the attention of the birds and then hold a little in your hand, and zou get birds all over you. Totally freaky at first, but very cool. Chris refused to try it at first. Not a big pigeon fan is he, but I talked him into it, and by the end, he thought it was pretty cool. Surprisingly, we made it through with no poopage on us!

Yesterday, we spent a lot of time exploring Venice and shopping. We took RS´walking tours of the city and happened upon the best pizza  of our lives. Oh my, was it good. In the afternoon, we decided to go to Murano. We´d thought about it before, then changed our minds, then decided to go again. So, we got on the Vaperetto to head over there, but about 1/2 way there, we realized that we wouldn´t get back in time to go to any of the shops we wanted to. So, we hopped off in some random part of the city and found our way back. Too fun!! We made it to the shops, and did all that we could to help the Venetian economy!!

I mentioned yesterday that Italy is lousy with cig. smoke. It´s actually not as bad as you´d expect. They´re really working on it. You see Vietato Fumare signs all over, and the actually enforce them (when they want to)....unlike here in Germany where smoking anywhere and everywhere is the national pasttime.

Don´t think from that or my last entry that I don´t like the Germans. I do, I love them and Germany. I just prefer most of them actually be in Germany when I´m in Italy!! So, we already can´t wait to go back to Italz, but for now it´s off to Starbucks and then maybe Dachau.

This country is lousy with Germans

and smokers and, and, and something else that I can't remember right now. There are Germans everywhere here. I'm telling you, I've heard as much German in this country as I have Italian, and they've gotten seriously annoying. I mean really, they're everywhere...really, everwhere. And, they're in groups....5, 10, 25, 50, everywhere. Really, are there any Germans left in Germany? School children, old folks, they're all here. AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!! And then tonight, we went back to our fave bar from last night for some more of the awesome white wine and chicceta and what do we find sitting next to us, but some Germans. I think God was speaking to me....patience Jamie, patience. After the first glass of wine, I asked one if he spoke English. I figured he did as he seemed rather young and I know they have to learn English in school. He and his friend both did, and we had a wonderful time chatting with them. Chris and I drank a liter of wine (on top of the first glass we had) and enjoyed every minute of it. We had a blast. It was over way to soon, but at 9:00, the bartender was flashing the lights telling us it was time to go (and we thought 2:00 was early!).

So here we are at the internet cafe. We have a train to Padova (or something like that) at 10:52 and then a 1:00 connection to Munich. We went this morning to make our reservations, and once again, we were told that all was full. But, after exhausting all possibities (Salzburg, Vienna, etc.) the guy at the sportello (window) came up with Padova (Padua to you English speakers) and then on to Munich. Fine with us, as long as we make our plane on Tues.

Venice has been an enchanting experience. We will totally be coming back here. We arrived yesterday at like 6:00 in the morning and knew we wouldn't be able to check into our hotel yet, so after spritzing up a bit and changing clothes in the station WC (bathroom) we checked our bags at the Baggagli (left/checked baggage) and made our way into the city. It was just before sunrise and the city was just beginning to awaken and it was perfect. We saw many stalls just putting out their wares (all kinds of fish, produce, etc) and got some amazing pictures of the city. We walked to St. Mark's Square (the one in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade where Sean Connery flaps his umberlla a the pigeons), and there was NOONE there. We loved it, we had the place to ourselves. Seriously, there were only about five other people there. So, we took tons of pictures (shocked, aren't you?) and savored it all. Rick Steves suggests taking the Vaperetto (water bus) down the Grand Canal to see the sights and get used to things, so we did it in reverse and then came back down to St. Mark's. We took the slow boat, and by the time we got back, it was after 10:00 and there a kabajillion tourists. It was unbelievable. I am so glad we had that time alone to savor it.

So, we into the church. WOW!!! It was awesome. Unbelievable. All of the walls are done in mosaic with tiny glass pieces. Luckily, the joint is lit up on Saturdays or you're not really able to see the beauty of it. Photography is not allowed, but with my awesome new lens, I was able to sneak a few awesome pics. I'm goint straight to tourist hell. Please don't tell Rick Steves!!!

We were exhausted from our hellacious train ride to Venice and took a 4 hour nap! Then, we made our way out to the bars, and the rest you've heard! Today, we walked, got lost, and had some wonderful pizza...twice! Love it!! Now we're on our way back to Munich and then home.

I'm doing laundry

in Venice, no less! well, sort of. we did laundry in our room last night and hung it on our Rick Steve's clotes line, and of course, nothing dried! So, we came to the Laundry, where they have an internet point. too funny! This is the one keyboard I've seen thath has an American setup, but you have to press really hard, so you can't type normally and it beeps with every character typed. This is a labor of love!

We love venice, don't really want to leave. Yesterday, we got here so early, we were able to see the city without the bajillions of tourists, and it was wonderful. Cold, but wonderful! Todaywe're doing walking tours from RS' book and maybe going to Murano (think glass). Last night, we took RS' advice and did a Venice style "pub crawl". We ate cicheta (CHICK-eta) or bar snacks and drank the house white wine. When we finally got to the first one, we didn't want to leave,but thought we should see something else, so we moved on. The 2nd was too hot, and the 3rd too trendy/crowded, so we went back to the first and in honor of Eric Englan ate crawdad looking guys! Hoping they're open tonight!

Rome wasn't built in a day

but it certainly was toured in a day! I can't believe how much we saw in one single day. We totally wore ourselves out, but it was worth it! We didn't arrive until after 7:00 on Thurs. night, and then we showered and still had to have dinner. We asked the guy at the front desk (a lovely man from Tanzania who came to Rome to study medicine. He's graduated, but he's still there. He still has to specialize and then if he meets a proper girl, then who knows....LOL!) where a good, reasonable restaurant was, and he sent us right next door. Excllent food, great ambiance, very good wine. I LOVED it! The waited had so much character. Typical Italian. Love it! I would totally go back in a heart beat (that was only a 1 glass of wine dinner, but it kicked my rear!).

So, Friday, we were total tourists. I mean total. After we finally up, we headed to the Vatican. We just walked around and looked at it. It was a 3 hour wait to get in. We wanted to see the Sistine Chapel, but we just didn't have the time. We took some pictures and made sure to see the Swiss guards and headed over to the Colosseum. Talk about breathtaking. The Colosseum is just awe-inspiring. It's been there for how many years? WOW!!! Loved it! It was super hot, I mean middle of summer hot, so we didnàt stay too terribly long (and remember, we'd lost Rick, so we were a bit on the clueless side as to what we were seeing - thank goodness I'd read the book a couple of times already and have a freakishly good memory). We were starving, so picked up food at one of the little stands 18 Euros later, we weren't starving any more, but our pockets were certainly lighter. We're talking sandwiches here folks, and remember 1 Euros costs $1.20. Ridiculous. But, we was to the point of shakiness, so it had to be done.

We'd followed Rickey's advice and purchased our Col. tickets from the Palatine hill and avoided the 45 minute wait at the Col. I can't believe the lines in Rome. So, we had the entrance to the Hill paid for, but decided to head through the Roman Forum instead. Good decision. It was amazing. We were standing in the place where great emporers once stood. Hundreds and even thousands of years ago. Mind-blowing. We checked out the Basilica of Maxentius just b/c Rickey stands in it during one of his PBS Episodes, and it was unbelievable how big this place was. It's huge as it stands, and we were only seeing 1/3 of it. Um...holy cow! We spoke with an American couple about it all and were all in awe together and then all of us happened upon a free tour. We caught it in the middle, but it was totally worth it. Some tour COs. send out their guides during the day to give free tours and then at the end tell the folks about the other tours they give, a couple we would have taken had we been there more. Anyway, she explained several of the temples to us including the one to Julius Caeser and Augustus somebody and his wife Faustinius something-or-other (and a couple of others I can't remember now), the apartments of the Vestal Virgins, the arch of Septemus Serervus, the arch of Justinius, the Senate, and the Mamertine Prison (where Peter and Paul were once held and then released when they converted their guards). It was truly outstanding. Being in this place with so many centuries of history. It wasn't just a static place, it grew and changed over the years of the Roman Empire, and I loved it! After the tour, we tried to see the tomb of the unkown soldier, but they were closing it, and man, can those Italian security guards be forceful!

So, we made our way to the Pantheon. My last "Must See" place in Rome. And oh, am I glad we did. It was breathtaking. It's not huge, but it is beautiful and you just catch your breath. After that, we walked to Piazza del Popolo and along the way happened into a lovely church and 2 paper stores. There was awesome paper, but there was no easy way for me to get it home, so I bought a "B" stamp. The girl working there just wouldn't believe me that I had ink at home that would work with it. She finally said if I couldn't use it, that was up to me. Too funny!

Finally, we decided to be the ultimate tourists and had dinner at the Hard Rock. We had Nachos and a Cheeseburger with fries and Chris had his beer served in the Souvenier glass, and we bought tee shirts and everything. And they even played Beck and Rick Springfield while we were in there. Loved every minute of it, including the Italian style mac & cheese!

We tried to go to the Easy Interenet Cafe, but on our way, I noticed that the Metro was closed. Turns out the A line (there's only 2) closed at 9:30. Um, yeah, we were planning on taking that to the train station! So, we had to run, get our bags, take a bus to the train station, and then take the metro to the other station from whence our train left. WE were totally freaked about missing our train....unnecessarily, b/c it left almost an hour late. We've yet to be on an ontime Italian train! And, it was the WORST train ride ever. Hot and long and crowded and we had a hard time sleeping. But, it was worth it. We're in Venice, and it is awesome!

On another note, we are currently in an internet cafe, and as we just had 4 glasses of the second best wine ever (the first being our first night in 5 Terre), I just asked Chris, "are we on a barge, or is it just me?" Turns out, we ARE on a boat, but the wine doesn't help!

More on Venice tomorrow, the guy is closing the cafe!