Pisa

We hopped on another train from La Spezia to Pisa.



Pisa has three main things you have to see, all located in the central square.

1. The Leaning Tower of Pisa, obviously



2. The baptistry



3. And the cathedral



The square also has hundreds and hundreds of vendors set up and hundreds of locals approaching you trying to sell you watches and key chains and other touristy stuff. These guys were very persistent but we'd read that if you plain ignored them they would eventually go away. Try having a conversation when these guys are constantly coming up to you, yammering on about their watches or sunglasses. Definitely an interesting thing to do.

After about 45 minutes of looking at the tower and walking around we felt that we'd seen all there was to see. We grabbed lunch (street meat) and picnicked in the tower's shadow. All R could talk about was the tower falling on us.



We headed back to the train station on hopped a train to Florence.

La Spezia and Cinque Terre

We hopped a train in Turin and headed south to La Spezia. It was my first time on a train so I was pretty excited.



La Spezia was much more tropical than Turin, a welcome change in temperature.



We found a little hotel and went out to explore the city. It's a port town so we ended up walking along the water and sitting on cannons and seeing some wildlife.





Truth be told, this little guy scared the crap out of me, but I was starved for some natural anything-that-wasn't-a-big-old-building so it was okay. We were thirsty from all the walking so we stopped and the boys got cappucinos. This is when we discovered that, while the sugar packs were huge, the Italians dumped two in their teeny caps. R was the only one with the guts to try that. The sugar wouldn't even dissolve at that point.

Tropical climate makes my allergy go nuts so I had an interesting time miming sneezing to a woman working at a pharmacia to get myself some Reactine.

I think this was the night we ate at McJohn's, a true American eatery. The food was awful. But really, the only reason we went to La Spezia was so that we'd be close to Cinque Terre. Cinque Terre is five fishing villages along the West coast of the country that were, in the past, only accessible by boat. Now, 9km of trails connect all 5 and we hopped a train (my second!) to attempt to hike that trail.

Our plans were almost foiled when we failed to get off the train at village #1. But, being troopers, we got off at village #2 and hiked from there to village #4 where we stopped for lunch.

Village #2


Village #4


J's lunch


He is still raving about this seabass. After eating and resting for a bit, we headed off toward village #5. By this time we were all sweaty and maybe a little whiny and definitely tired. Personally, my calves hurt for the rest of the trip. Anyways, we got to village #5 where there was a beach. The beach was rocky and the water was cold by I walked in. I also collected some rocks (I do that whenever we're someplace with rocks) and carried them around with me for the rest of the trip.

After a short break, we headed to catch the train back to village #2 so that we could walk from #2 to #1 to complete the whole hike. The path between #2 and #1 is called lover's lane and is very easy and smooth so it was absolutely no problem after the rugged ups and downs of the rest of the trail.



We collapsed into the train back to La Spezia. Walking through town to our hotel, we stopped to get another memory card for the point-and-shoot and a sweatshirt for me. Then we went back to the hotel for showers. That night we dined in pure Italian style at an outdoor restaurant in a big public square. There was wine and pasta and thankfully only two hamburgers (the boys weren't sure if they ordered one or four hamburgers - they got two) and bread and cappucinos. And a very cute puppy who was playing with a bottle cap and a very cute kid who was kicking a soccer ball with his dad.

We got back to the hotel late and exhausted and slept like babies. La Spezia and Cinque Terre are must-sees for anyone travelling to Italy.

Italy - The Wedding

Quite possibly the post you've been waiting for. C and S's wedding. It was Saturday, May 3rd, at a farm between Turin and Asti. The four of us woke up early, somewhat hungover, and got ready. We practically ran from our apartment to the main square where the convoy was meeting. This was our first time meeting a lot of S's Italian friends. Everyone was all decked out and ready to party.

Five of us crammed in a little Clio, a cute typical European car (i.e. it was a tiny diesel).



We were treated to an hour-long drive through beautiful country side and sometimes through little towns complete with streets hardly wide enough for our little car let alone two cars to pass going in opposite directions.



Since C and S had already been married back in November, this was a fake ceremony with two friends officiating / emceeing. Both sets of parents did readings and C and S both said their vows. Everything was translated from English to Italian and Italian to English.



It was a nice little ceremony. After the ceremony we all drank wine that S's dad had purchased the year she was born - a neat Italian tradition - and ate munchies. S's friends played "Going to the Chapel" for them.



Then there was dinner. A 10 course dinner. I can't even remember everything we ate because it lasted two and a half hours or so.



We were at a table with C's family from Canada so we talked a lot about the weather (obviously) and our trip so far and to come. There were speeches, again translated into the other language, and cake cutting and eating, a rowdy game of ultimate, goat-watching and eventually dancing and drinking and more food.







Congratulations to C and S!

Turin, the first time

Turin, or Torino, is where our friend S is from. It is in the north-western part of Italy, near France. Like Frankfurt, it has a canal.



We spent a lot of time our first two days walking along the canal. From there, you can see lots of stuff. There are castles perched on hill (mountain?) tops.



At one point, we were getting really hot from all the walking and were looking for a gelato place and randomly ran into two hometown people who joined us for gelato and relaxing in a huge park.



Also, a friendly game of frisbee that sometimes included a somewhat possessive dog.



It was nice to be around people who spoke English again. But watching the Italians in the park was neat. There's a very laid back feeling in Italy.

Back to the canal. Unlike the canal here, the canal in Turin turns into a huge outdoor bar scene at night. You can walk from bar to bar with a drink in hand - very cool.



The only problem with drinking all sorts of alcohol is getting to a bathroom. Thankfully we were near Piazza Vittorio which has restaurants and cafes and bars and shops. Think we could find one with a bathroom? Well we did, but it took a while. J had to buy a glass of wine, which he downed. That, combined with all the other drinks at dinner and at the canal, made for a very intoxicated J. And that night we found out just how thin the walls in the apartment were.

Speaking of the apartment, from the balcony we could see the Mole (pronounced Mole-ay). It's a huge dome that can be seen from everywhere in Turin.



On our last day in town we went up to the Mole. There is a museum inside and an elevator suspended only by cables that takes you to the top. We all crammed in the elevator (8 or 9 people at a time, literally pushed up against the glass walls) and stumbled out at the top. It was an open area that you could walk around to take in the view of the city. It was spectacular.



I tried taking pictures that I can stitch together to get a 180 degree view of the city. Now I just have to figure out how to do that!

Here we are, at the top of the Mole, high-fiving the camera.



High fives were a big part of the trip.

That night we had dinner at a little place where no one spoke any English and the menu was in Italian only. We thought we'd picked up enough to get by but were almost completely lost. We ordered the first four pastas and hoped for the best. Take it from me, scampi is not the shrimp we are used to. It is fully shelled and eyed and legged and antenna-ed huge shrimp.



After getting over the gross factor and figuring out how to get the meat out, they were really good. But ug.

Some other interesting shots from Turin, the first time:

The Mole reflected in the glass windows of another building.


Graffiti saying that tv is eating your mind, which we all loved.


For all of the pictures from the trip - and I'm warning you, there are LOTS of pictures - your best bet is to go to my Flickr set. I haven't made the all public yet, but I am slowly getting through them and tagging and adding descriptions.

Up next: the wedding!

Vacation Recap

Two Wednesdays ago, we left for Montreal on our way to Frankfurt.



It was an overnight flight and none of us was able to sleep. We arrived in Frankfurt in the morning or early afternoon - I can't remember exactly. We spent the day walking around the city, which we decided was pretty but pretty smelly. We were more than exhausted.



We fought through it and powered through Frankfurt, back to the airport, to Turin and eventually collapsed in our rented apartment. And so the story begins...

And we're off!

We're leaving in an hour for Montreal so we can fly to Frankfurt. We arrive in Frankfurt tomorrow morning and fly from there to Turin tomorrow night. We spend the weekend in Turin, getting all glamorous for the wedding Saturday, and then head south down the west coast of Italy for the rest of the week. We'll be back in Frankfurt Friday and back in Canada Saturday.

We will of course be taking a million pictures and probably drinking a ton of beer and maybe even some wine. I'll be thinking of you all while I'm trekking up the coasts of Cinque Terre and bumbling through ordering calzones in Italian. Have a great week.

Ciao!

Spring Has Arrived

Spring has officially arrived. I am so surprised with how quickly the warm weather came, but I am delighted. Last week I wore my winter coat to work both Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday I would have worn my spring coat but I couldn't find it in the mad rush to get out of the house in the morning. Turns out I didn't need it. This was the day we went to Hog's Back Falls after work. Hog's Back was beautiful and fun.

Especially fun was the muskrat. I noticed this little guy right near J. I had to yell and yell for him to hear me over the roar of the falls. But when he finally did, he chased that guy down.



He was able to get a great picture of him:



It was really nice to take a break from the usual rush to get to work, workworkwork and rush to get home. We got home later than usual but we were happy.

After Saturday's heat, all of our snow is gone (okay, not quite all but I don't care anymore!). J sealed the driveway which took hours and hours (whoever said buying a corner lot was a good idea never sealed the four-car-wide driveway of one.)



S&L came over in the midst for a bbq lunch and craft fun, the final products I have yet to take pictures of. Her final product was gifted the next day at a baby shower to much oohing and aahing. Feels damn good.

Saturday night was like a date night: dinner and drinks. Specifically, Vietnamese and lots of beer. I was a good little DD and didn't drink, but my friends sure did.



J started off the night with a Delirium, some ridiculously-high alcohol-content beer and managed to get pleasantly drunk. We managed to still get home not too late. Someone had the rest of a driveway to seal and a hangover to nurse. I slept in.

Once I woke up and got myself dressed and fed (clothed and no longer cranky = necessity for facing the world), I grabbed my book and proceeded to get my very first burn of the year on my neck, shoulders, arms and shins. Awesome! Even though it hurt to sleep.

We spent a good chunk of the late afternoon and early evening with J's family. J was doing "son" things and I was lounging on the deck perpetuating my burn. We also watched a cardinal and a bunny go about their Sunday afternoon business in the backyard. Not together of course.

And then there's the cats. Springtime means shed-time. They are shedding like you would not believe considering they are mostly hairless. And Rolo, the boy cat, is friskier than usual. Poor guy just doesn't get it. I think it's a guy thing though: the warmer weather brings out the short skirts and sandals. For me, for some odd reason, it brings out the urge to clean the house. Spring cleaning? I've turned a blind eye long enough, house, I'll be coming for you.

Sore Eyes

Blogging just doesn't have its appeal when my eyes hurt when I look at a computer screen. I want to see an optometrist. I've wanted to see one for a while. I've been trying to treat myself and my body better and do things to make it happy. Like get a check up at the doctors and get my teeth cleaned and xrayed. I've been exercising regularly and flossing regularly. I've been getting more sleep than ever before and eating more fruits and veggies.

The eye thing was just going to be a preventative check up, something else I'm doing for my body, but the pain is making it a necessary check up. Who knows, maybe an optometrist will suggest I get a non-desk, non-staring-at-the-computer-all-day job. Maybe just a break from the job? Or an extended holiday.. err, extended leave. Wouldn't that be nice.

So my apologies for not updating more often. But really, I'm just doing what I normally do, though getting a burn in April is not normal. Hello, nice weather! Thank you for coming around so soon.

Happy birthday, Alan!

Sylvia, L and I had planned a surprise potluck dinner for Alan's birthday. It all came together nicely and S, L and I surprised Alan with our singing and balloon throwing and general showing up at his door. We had a good meal and good birthday pie.

Alan was the lucky recipient of an XBOX 360 and now the proud owner of RockBand. We are expecting the news of a new tv any day now.

Before heading over, we blew up a dozen or so balloons. They were a multipack from the dollar store, which I would not recommend. They tasted awful and included one rogue peach-coloured balloon. S blew up Peach real big. She definitely had her moments during the course of the night. She got a pretty (ugly) face makeover at one point and then threw herself at S who was not impressed. The rest of us loved it.



Other news is that J got his other two wisdom teeth out Thursday afternoon. We had a nice weekend, spent most of our time at home. I didn't feel well most of Saturday, but was a trooper and trailed after J to Canadian Tire and McDonalds and other places. He had this elaborate plan for the garage that I completely couldn't picture, but he pulled it off and now the windsurfer lives on the ceiling. He also got a peg board and has organized his tools (picture to follow). Guys everywhere will be impressed.

We stopped by to see my parents. I got this cute picture of Maxie:

Continuation

The snow is continuing to melt and we are continuing to see more of our garage from the street. Exciting.

I have a sad life when snow melting is exciting.

Yep.

Missing Title

Friday night I was looking forward to staying in but that didn't happen. We went for dinner with J's mom and sister and then, since one of J's coworkers "won" tickets to Absolute Comedy, we went with him and his girlfriend and met S&L there. The show was pretty good, definitely some good jokes we've been mentioning since. We were home not too late and in bed soon after.

I keep waking up cold because J ends up with all the covers (he always turns one way and takes the covers with him) so I came up with a genius plan to put the comforter sideways. Friday night was our first night like that. It worked pretty well, but last night it worked great! I had complete coverage all night, even with the cats taking up most of my half of the bed. It was awesome.

After a huge sleep-on yesterday, I went to the mall to return the dress I bought Monday. Thursday after work we'd gone out to a bar downtown with S&L and two of their friends and stopped by the big mall afterwards where I saw a dress that I liked more than the one I bought. So I went and returned it and got a nice shirt instead and picked up the other dress. I think I'm finally happy with it. It will be my dress for C&S's wedding in Italy in May, I think. I still have to find out how formal it will be.

Last night was a surprise birthday party for J's coworker, Luc. Happy birthday, Luc!



His girlfriend, Steph, put together the whole surprise which worked out really well. J and I rock-paper-scissored to see who got to drink and I won. I had rum punch with grenadine, to remind me of Cuba. It's a good drink. Since the party started so early, we were home relatively early.

Today, J was working in the garage and in the driveway, trying to melt all the snow. I went out and helped a little. It's so nice now that it's sunny and warm out.



And we have some grass showing now:



I took a really fun picture of myself reflected in J's sunglasses. It's my new favourite picture of the two of us.

Inspiration

The wedding show always inspires me to try and sell my wedding dress. A couple of years ago, I took it to a boutique downtown that sells used gowns. They told me to get it cleaned again so I did. That took a long time. And it took me another long time to go back to the boutique. I finally called them today - I couldn't remember if you needed an appointment - and, turns out, they only sell new dresses now. Just my luck. And there's nowhere else in town that sells used dresses either. At least that I could find.

I took a coworker's advice and posted an ad on our internal want ads and have already had three requests to see pictures. I just hope someone buys the dress.

Here are the details so you can pass this along to everyone you can think of. For me.

Fabulous Formals, Size 8.
Strapless, fitted bodice, beaded detail goes from top right across bodice down front left, basket weave back (great for loosening a little for dinner and dancing), minimal train, professionally cleaned - twice, only worn once.



Front detail:


Back: