Welcome Back
I'm Home! Back home in the 5L, off the lovely Edgware Rd. Tube stop. Ok. Enough small talk. Onto the trip.
One more thing... for the sake of my sanity I will not write out every detail of the trip because that would go on forever. For the details please call or shoot me an e-mail asking about specific parts.
I arrive in Paris last Thursday, the 7th, all by myself. I was supposed to ride with Pete, but we got our communication mixed up and I would up in Gar du Nord all by myself. Not knowing one lick of French, I kept my cool and walked around the station, hoping to God that Pete took the next train which was scheduled to arrive an hour later. I buy a tomato and cheese baguette (something Europe specializes in) and hung out in the Relay book shop looking at the French languge books.
Luckily Pete arrives and we're ready to go. He takes me on the subway to his aunt and uncles Notre Dame apartment where we stay the night.
Friday
We get up around noon and head out after a delicious egg and cheese breakfast prepared by Auntie Marmelade. We also have a fresh baguette and fresh squeezed orange juice. We decide to first hittup the Louvre. Quite spectacular. We saw lots of interesting pieces of art and ancient sculptures. We followed signs to see the Mona Lisa, which turned out to be not as impressive as the insane mass of tourists pushing and shoving just to catch a glimpse of the famous Leonardo painting.
Other highlights include the Shakespeare bookstore, an English bookstore we visited where James Joyce wrote Ulysses, and Monmart, with its incredible view of Paris. We also went to the massive Sacreshure church in Paris (which is called something else...I forgot the real name). We then walked around historic Monmart and got nutella and banana crepes.
Saturday
A mostly lazy day. Shabbas, after all. Breakfast was delicious as always, got croissants and baguettes. Went to the Eiffel tower, which the Irish had taken over for the day as their hot spot to tailgate for the soccer game versus France later that day. Got home by 7 in time for Auntie Marm's crepes. Soo good. I had 3 cheese ones and 2 sweet ones. After dinner we went to a bar to see the soccer game. Scoreless tie. For the life of me, I'll never understand that bloody game. It made me miss American football, espeically since the Eagles are rolling.
Sunday
Go to Rome! Wake up in Paris and get packed. I must admit I can't remember what I did that morning. All I do remember is that I almost missed the bus to the airport because of the confusing Paris subway and the guy on it who told us to get off 2 stops before we needed to. I decided it would be necessary to just take a cab to the spot. Cabs are much cheaper in Europe than London. Get on the bus to the airport and sit next to an Irishman, who explained to me the whole story behind how so many Irish got into Paris for the game. Of course the internet.
The flight to Rome was nice and short, no real problems. I get into the city around 9 and the hotel around ten, where I was supposed to meet up with Uncle Adam and surprise Aunt Amy. The consierge asks me if I'm Ben, I say I am, and he tells me to go to the Atlante Star hotel around the corner where they are eating dinner. I head over and take the lift up to the restaurant, properly surprising my dear Aunt. We had a lovely meal and an excellent time catching up on everything. The food was excellent, and quite filling. After dinner we were all pretty exhausted, especially my poor Aunt and Uncle who hadn't slept in days. We head back to the hotel/apartment (long story -- ask Uncle Adam), call Jonathan wishing him a happy birthday, then go to sleep.
Monday
HUGE day. Wish I could remember everything that went on. Spent the whole day with Aunt and Uncle, so you just know it was exciting. We go to the Spanish steps and have lunch at Spizzico, an Italian fast food pizza chain. One thing Uncle Adam and I both much appreciated about Rome was the ubiquity of peaches and dimes in the city. So many of the women looked like either movie stars or models. After the pizza Uncle Adam goes tie shopping and finds some quite nice pieces. We then buy gelati and head to the Collisium.
The Collisium was awesome. I learned that the word arena means sand in Latin, so because the floor of the Collisium was made of sand originally, that's where we get the modern term for it. I loved the living history of the place. So amazing.
Quick funny story. Uncle Adam challenged me to race him up the stone steps of the arena, so as we run up, his pda flys out of his belf and bounces, stair after stair, down to the floor, finally banging on the stone floor. As it hits the floor the memory chip flys out. Luckily, everything still worked.
Anyway after some issues with the pocketbook street vendors, we are ready to go to Yesh Restaurant on Via Girardi. Unfortunately, no one has ever heard of Via Girardi so we have no idea where to go. We finally ask the guard at the subway stop naer the station to talk to the lady at Yesh because she spoke no English. Turns out we pronounced it wrong ("Not Girardi. Girardi!").
Ok I'm tired of writing. I'll continue the rest tomorrow.
One more thing... for the sake of my sanity I will not write out every detail of the trip because that would go on forever. For the details please call or shoot me an e-mail asking about specific parts.
I arrive in Paris last Thursday, the 7th, all by myself. I was supposed to ride with Pete, but we got our communication mixed up and I would up in Gar du Nord all by myself. Not knowing one lick of French, I kept my cool and walked around the station, hoping to God that Pete took the next train which was scheduled to arrive an hour later. I buy a tomato and cheese baguette (something Europe specializes in) and hung out in the Relay book shop looking at the French languge books.
Luckily Pete arrives and we're ready to go. He takes me on the subway to his aunt and uncles Notre Dame apartment where we stay the night.
Friday
We get up around noon and head out after a delicious egg and cheese breakfast prepared by Auntie Marmelade. We also have a fresh baguette and fresh squeezed orange juice. We decide to first hittup the Louvre. Quite spectacular. We saw lots of interesting pieces of art and ancient sculptures. We followed signs to see the Mona Lisa, which turned out to be not as impressive as the insane mass of tourists pushing and shoving just to catch a glimpse of the famous Leonardo painting.
Other highlights include the Shakespeare bookstore, an English bookstore we visited where James Joyce wrote Ulysses, and Monmart, with its incredible view of Paris. We also went to the massive Sacreshure church in Paris (which is called something else...I forgot the real name). We then walked around historic Monmart and got nutella and banana crepes.
Saturday
A mostly lazy day. Shabbas, after all. Breakfast was delicious as always, got croissants and baguettes. Went to the Eiffel tower, which the Irish had taken over for the day as their hot spot to tailgate for the soccer game versus France later that day. Got home by 7 in time for Auntie Marm's crepes. Soo good. I had 3 cheese ones and 2 sweet ones. After dinner we went to a bar to see the soccer game. Scoreless tie. For the life of me, I'll never understand that bloody game. It made me miss American football, espeically since the Eagles are rolling.
Sunday
Go to Rome! Wake up in Paris and get packed. I must admit I can't remember what I did that morning. All I do remember is that I almost missed the bus to the airport because of the confusing Paris subway and the guy on it who told us to get off 2 stops before we needed to. I decided it would be necessary to just take a cab to the spot. Cabs are much cheaper in Europe than London. Get on the bus to the airport and sit next to an Irishman, who explained to me the whole story behind how so many Irish got into Paris for the game. Of course the internet.
The flight to Rome was nice and short, no real problems. I get into the city around 9 and the hotel around ten, where I was supposed to meet up with Uncle Adam and surprise Aunt Amy. The consierge asks me if I'm Ben, I say I am, and he tells me to go to the Atlante Star hotel around the corner where they are eating dinner. I head over and take the lift up to the restaurant, properly surprising my dear Aunt. We had a lovely meal and an excellent time catching up on everything. The food was excellent, and quite filling. After dinner we were all pretty exhausted, especially my poor Aunt and Uncle who hadn't slept in days. We head back to the hotel/apartment (long story -- ask Uncle Adam), call Jonathan wishing him a happy birthday, then go to sleep.
Monday
HUGE day. Wish I could remember everything that went on. Spent the whole day with Aunt and Uncle, so you just know it was exciting. We go to the Spanish steps and have lunch at Spizzico, an Italian fast food pizza chain. One thing Uncle Adam and I both much appreciated about Rome was the ubiquity of peaches and dimes in the city. So many of the women looked like either movie stars or models. After the pizza Uncle Adam goes tie shopping and finds some quite nice pieces. We then buy gelati and head to the Collisium.
The Collisium was awesome. I learned that the word arena means sand in Latin, so because the floor of the Collisium was made of sand originally, that's where we get the modern term for it. I loved the living history of the place. So amazing.
Quick funny story. Uncle Adam challenged me to race him up the stone steps of the arena, so as we run up, his pda flys out of his belf and bounces, stair after stair, down to the floor, finally banging on the stone floor. As it hits the floor the memory chip flys out. Luckily, everything still worked.
Anyway after some issues with the pocketbook street vendors, we are ready to go to Yesh Restaurant on Via Girardi. Unfortunately, no one has ever heard of Via Girardi so we have no idea where to go. We finally ask the guard at the subway stop naer the station to talk to the lady at Yesh because she spoke no English. Turns out we pronounced it wrong ("Not Girardi. Girardi!").
Ok I'm tired of writing. I'll continue the rest tomorrow.
posted by xdredd at 3:26 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home