16,400.75 kilometers and a kiss from a South African

Hello all. Lots has happened in the last couple weeks so forgive the length of this post. The pictures are mostly large so if you click on them you can view the full size versions.

Mike and I headed out to London on Thursday the 13th, as I had to work in Woking during the day and he didn't want to stay home alone that night. So, we got an early start to the vacay.

Daniel arrived safe and sound on Friday September 14th to begin his Epic European Journey. On Friday we picked him up at Heathrow Airport and took a long and detoured train journey to Luton. The funniest thing during the whole trip actually happened about 20 minutes after Daniel got off the plane--we had to take the tube from Heathrow Airport to Piccadilly Circus to give Daniel a look at the Spamalot Theatre. When we got on the tube at Heathrow the train was relatively empty but as it moved into London it started to get packed. As there is never a garbage can to be had in or around London often you will come across bags of garbage sitting on or around the seats on the trains. As was the case, one was sitting beside Daniel but there was nothing to be done about it so he left it on the seat. At one of the earlier stops, a woman got on and went to sit on the seat next to Daniel. As is indicative of manners in London, she couldn't just move the bag--oh, no. She threw it and nailed him right in the head! HAHAHAHA! So, he's just made a 6,500km journey without problems and made his way through one of the most complicated airports in the world to get nailed in the head by a bag of garbage. Of course, any other Londoner would have ignored the slight and shifted slightly to move the bag of garbage from one's head/shoulders, but not Daniel. He turned to her, his eyes wide with both surprise and indignation and said, "Bitch." It was at once wholly inappropriate and very satisfying as she rightly lowered her eyes in embarrassment having been caught and called out for her own crap behaviour. Of course, this happened in a matter of seconds and he then looked at us wide-eyed and worried about what would be said, but all Mike and I could do was keep our own hysterical laughter to a minimum. The rest of the train journey was hot and sweaty but uneventful.

Until, that is, we got to Luton and realized we had entered a suburb from hell. Luton is twinned with New York, of all places, but the city itself is really, really awful. There's NOTHING TO DO and nothing within walking distance so we were stuck in this overpriced, loud and gross hotel with showers that backed up and had mould on the ceilings and where they were doing major renovations so the entire night was punctuated by loud electric tool sounds and incessant banging. Not a great start to the trip. I won't be going back there any time soon.

Anyway, it ended up OK as Daniel slept off his jetlag, I read a book and Mike went for a walk through the concrete wasteland. We had to be up at 4am anyway to head to the airport to fly to Ciampino Airport outside of Rome. The flight was uneventful and we arrived to beautiful weather in hot and lovely Rome to discover that our hostel was a half-hour train journey to another town, but that actually worked out well. Getting to the hostel involved taking a train to Prima Porta and from there a private shuttle to the Tiber Camping Village. The Village had a pool, bar, restaurant and loads of places to relax and hang out. It was really lovely and we met some really nice people there including Ralph and Sharon from South Africa, currently living in London, and Earl from Florida who's currently on an extended European vacation. We spent lots of time chatting with them and recovering from the day's travel and we made plans to go out for dinner as a group later in the week.

Our first full day in Rome involved the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and sitting through a partial mass in a cathedral adjacent to the Trevi Fountain. What a lovely experience.






Daniel was suitably awed by the fountain, I was completely blown away by the Pantheon and all of us appreciated the sentiment of the city itself as there were masses of people outside but within the cathedral you could have heard a pin drop.





That day in our walking marathon we also stumbled upon the Piazza del Pollo, which was hosting a 3-on-3 NBA basketball tournament.






I got a great shot of Daniel sitting on the ledge with the NBA stuff and a statue of Caesar in the background. We walked all the way up to a plaza overlooking the city with a park and gardens, etc. We then returned to the hostel, overly hot and in search of a much-needed rest.






Throughout the trip we needed to be conscious that neither Mike nor Daniel weather the heat well so we would leave the hostel by 8:30 in the morning and be back around 2.






That night we went out for dinner with Ralph, Earl and Sharon to a restaurant in Prima Porta called La Verre Grotte. This is an unseen gem of Italy and one of the most interesting places I've ever eaten. There are 4 levels to the restaurant,





the ancient Roman pub in the basement that actually sits in the side of the hill,










the inside and patio of the restaurant,







a private small patio with cacti growing out of the walls and stuff, and a upstairs terrace for parties and such that backs onto someone's private residence. I didn't get a pic of that one as it included someone's house...









We sat outside as the night was gorgeous and we had a 4-hour dinner that included much discussion about Apartheid in South Africa, Shrub in the States, Brown in the UK and Harper in Canada. It was a really fun time.


The next morning we got up agonizingly early to head into Rome to hit the Coliseum and Old Rome--it was Mike's 34th birthday as well. I had been waiting to hear about these NFL season opener tickets that I had been trying to get for him, but alas I did not win. To purchase them you have to enter a lottery--there are 100,000 seats and 2 million people registered for their chance to buy as the game's being played in London this year. Guh. I really didn't have much of a chance, so instead I'm taking Mike to Manchester on November 17th (2 months late) to see The Sex Pistols at the MEN Arena.

Anyway, the Coliseum was absolutely amazing and Old Rome was really, really cool. Despite the fact that we ended up a little lost so had to walk through this park that clearly has multiple uses at night. This was indicated by the used needles and other stuff that we stepped lightly to avoid. Ick.




Daniel took himself back to the hostel after we'd seen the Coliseum as he wasn't interested in walking more miles, so Mike and I explored a little on our own. We then headed back to the hostel and got ready to head out for Mike's small birthday dinner that involved a restaurant in another small town along the train tracks. It was quite a nice night.

The following day, again at like 6:30am wakeup, we headed to the Vatican City and attempted to get into the Sistine Chapel. The Vatican and St. Peter's were just unreal.






We went into the crypt where all the popes are entombed and there is a special monument for Pope John Paul currently on display--many people journeyed just to see this. It was moving in its own way, actually. No pictures, of course.








The sculptures and art in St. Peter's are so amazingly beautiful it's almost impossible to describe. Some of them were so detailed and meticulously crafted it feels like they're moving. This was by far my favorite part of St. Peter's--it doesn't photograph that well, but when you see it it feels like the gold is crawling out of the wall and into the cathedral.

After Mike and I hit old Rome, we headed back to the hostel as we were exhausted. Both of us had been traveling since Thursday and it just kind of hit at once.



We got back to the hostel and received some e-mail sharing that friends of ours have experienced a very sad loss, and that made us both stop and think really hard. Daniel stayed at the hostel that night and had dinner and hung out with Earl, and Mike and I headed out to Prima Porta to a small little restaurant and had dinner together. We were going to head off to Barcelona the next day, so we needed some down time. Mike has the pictures and stories from Barcelona and the return to London, so he'll post the blog on the second half of the trip.

On the home front, things have been very up and down. We have been here for just over 5 months now, and things are following their usual pattern of, good news--vehicle break down--bad news--vehicle break down, etc. The car failed its initial MOT yesterday so it has to go back into the shop on Tuesday for more work (read: more money) and I hope to god that this round of repairs won't be like the last. Mike's scooter is of course back in the shop and mine had to go in for repairs as well, although they only took a day. Also, Mike recently signed a 9-month contract with Wyevale Garden Centre, but when we returned from vacation we found out that they're going to be shutting down their Hereford offices and relocating everything to Slough, which is a suburb of London. Needless to say, his employment situation is tenuous at best and he'll find out on Tuesday whether or not he even has his job through to the end of October.

The most recent news from home that we received while in Rome has us both aching to come home, if just to be there an be able to see people. This time here seems determined to have us as a cautionary tale for other travelers who are interested in living and working overseas. My work is, as per usual, Social Work, which means it's frustrating, stressful and overwhelming by definition. While I certainly enjoy the coworkers and families I work with, the job itself at times can be demanding and difficult. I actually asked Mom to go to an information session for me at MacEwan earlier this week as I'm exploring the possibility of applying to their Bachelor of Science in Nursing program for September 2008. We definitely know that we'll be returning for June 2008--as Mike says, though, it's a matter of whether or not we can suck it up for that long.

On the plus side, since we left Edmonton we've traveled just over 25,000 kilometers, have been in 12 airports, have taken 13 flights and have been in 6 countries if you include travel within England and Canada. And we're all traveled out at the moment. That has been the saving grace of our time here--being able to pick up and head off to Europe with very little trouble.

Saying that, though, Dad and Dorothy arrive on Thursday of this coming week and we'll be heading to Glasgow with them for the weekend to see various family members. We've also begun making some tentative Christmas plans as we're not going to make it back to Edmonton. Well, we could, but Mike is insistent that if we come back again he won't return to Hereford, so there goes that option.... The potential plan is therefore to head to Berlin to spend time with Claire; her friend Amy will also be there, and Claire's sister might be coming as well. I think that would be an awesome way to spend Christmas, actually. I really can't stand the idea of being stuck here for the holidays.

Towards the end of the month Shannon will also be coming, and we're hoping that Dolores might as well. So there are excellent things to look forward to and I'm really excited about family coming over.

So, off I shall go. Time to vacuum and tidy in preparation for Dad and Dorothy next week. I hope everyone back home is doing well, and of course,
((hugs))
XOXOXO!

BTW, the Amsterdam and Rome postcards will be sent at the same time, like, today... Yeah, it really is that big of a deal to get stamps. LOL.