Nanjing: Snow + Converse = I'm Dumb

你好!
I just got back from a few days in Nanjing and when I arrived, it was snowing! My first thought: My feet are really cold. Why did I bring my Converses with me, and not.. boots or something better for cold weather? I don't think things through sometimes. My solution: double up on the socks, which worked out pretty well, yay.

Day One
The first day I was there, the temperature range was -7 to 3 degrees Celsius, any water that had been splashed on the floor had turned into ice. We spent our afternoon in the Fuzimiao area, walking around, looking in the shops, eating hot noodles, and visiting the Fuzimiao. This was the second time I went to this place, and upon revisit, I was rather disappointed. I think there's some sort of anniversary of the miao going on so there are a bunch of fake-y, nativity scene-esque displays up of Confucius teaching his disciples or other more ridiculous things, like a chicken, all in bright cloth. So, we left the miao and bought some candy. Really, we went across the square and bought a bag of Chinese candies. Sesame covered chewy things, milk and peanut gooeys, pine nut flavored chewies, peanut flavored chewies, strawberry gooeys, and some other glutenous candies. Then, we went back to the hotel because it was so damn cold. I couldn't feel my toes, fingers, or face any more, so we hopped on the line 1 bus back to our hotel.

That night, I met up with a friend I met while studying abroad in Shanghai. He's teaching English at a university in Nanjing and brought along one of his students. They met me at my hotel and took me on the subway to this very brightly lit street with tons of shops and restaurants. We ate really spicy hotpot and drank cold beer while providing examples of the word filthy to his Chinese student. After we'd finished the spicy hotpot, which left my lips numb, we headed toward the university area in search of a bar. We were unsuccessful as it was a Monday night and the only open bar we found had a table of party cadres (or that's what they looked like to me) and they told us they were closing. So we decided to stop wandering around in the cold and took a taxi back.

Day Two
The next day was Zijinshan day and it was slightly warmer. My momma and I took bus 游 1 to Purple Mountain, which includes Sun Yat Sen's Mausoleum and the Ming Tombs. My mom almost didn't want to see Dr Sun's Mausoleum because of all the stairs, but I made her. She remembered some old pictures of my grandmother on the steps of Dr. Sun's Mausoleum so she posed just as she remembered her mother posed and I framed the photo just as I remembered the photo. We then headed to the Ming Tombs (Ming Xiao Ling) and headed for the Sacred Path with all the stone animals. The path is a lot longer than I remember it being, the first part was 250m long and the second part (Elephant trail) was 675m long. Again, my mom remembered an old photo (around 60 years ago) of my grandfather posing in front of one of the standing stone elephants and wanted a photo like it. So we took a bunch of pictures before heading to the actual tomb area. We walked the long path toward the fortress-like building, but to our dismay, it was closed and under construction. It was okay for me because I had already been inside, but my mom wanted to see the tomb, I guess I'll just have to show her my pictures from last year. I had wanted to see the Nanjing Massacre Memorial after Zijinshan, but it was getting late so we headed back to town. We stopped at 1912 on our way back, which is a plaza that's Xintiandi-esque, but not as popular or extravagant. We had hotpot, the second day in a row for me, and it was the perfect way to end a full day of site seeing in the cold.

Day Three
Our last day in Nanjing. I made it a point to go and see the Nanjing Massacre Memorial, because it would be the only thing that I hadn't seen in Nanjing last year, as it had been closed for renovation. This place was huge. There were several monuments including a huge cross and wall stating the number of victims the Japanese army brutally killed (300,000 though the Japanese government claims otherwise and has barely even recognized that the event had happened). It also had a Washington memorial-type long pond with obelisk-in-form-of-lady at the end. Part of the exhibition is piles of bones excavated from the mass grave site where the memorial is situated along with the uncovered grave of 10,000. I thought this was greatly disrespectful of the dead, digging their bones up and putting them on display, less than 80 years after their brutal deaths. The memorial is enough to let people know what happened, the mass grave doesn't need to be shown too. Anyway, then we left for the fast train back to Shanghai and here I am now. Someone's putting off some fireworks outside and it sounds like the city is under fire. Let's hope they stop soon so I can sleep :)

Merry Christmas friends! Have a wonderful day, hope you were all good this year!

Xi'an: Land of Li Shan, Remonstration Pavilions, and Terracotta Warriors

Anyone who comes to visit Xi'an has to visit the Terracotta Army, it's like when you go to Rome, you have to visit the Sistine Cha.. I mean the Coliseum. Yeah, so that's what I did today. My mommy and I joined one of those annoying bus tours that took us to Li Shan, some random museums, lame jade "factory", lame dried fruit market, and an over priced restaurant all before taking us to the Terracotta army. Li Shan (mountain) was cool, we took one of those gondolas up and walked down. My mom almost had a heart attack coming down the mountain, she's deathly afraid of heights, so it was a slowwww walk down. We passed the crevice that Chiang Kai Shek hid in when the Communists took over before exiling him to Taiwan. There was a Remonstration Pavilion to commemorate that incident (I had to look up what remonstrate meant >_<, sometimes I don't understand the English translations of Chinese sites of importance).

It's funny the way Communists tell "history" from the way the Nationalists tell "history, especially when it comes to Chiang Kai Shek. Coming from a Taiwanese Nationalist background, I was always taught how great and revered Chiang Kai Shek was, bravely fighting the Japanese at the same time as the Communists and creating the great, democratic state of Taiwan. These days, I've spent much more time in China than in Taiwan, and all I ever hear is how Chiang Kai Shek was greatly defeated by the cunning Mao and then forced to the island of Taiwan.

Anyway, the mountain was worth the visit. We were then brought to another place that had hot springs and ruins of Tang dynasty buildings. Mainly the baths of the emperor, empress, and people who worked for them. There was also this tower the emperor had built so his girlfriend could dry her hair faster by standing in it while the wind blew. I'm sure this was my favorite part, the rest was just, meh. Then, the tour brought us to a museum that housed a model of what they think Qinshihuang's tomb looks like. This place was really creepy and mildy lame. Creepy because of all the wax figures in weird positions and lame because, why the hell were we brought here anyway?? The next place was even more lame, a jade factory. I almost lost it when I saw the place, this is why I hate bus tours in China. Every tour has taken me to some sort of lame ass, tourist trap factory. Who knows how many silk, pearl, jade, tea, ceramic factories I've been to, I hate them. >:O So, I just sat in the bus, doing sudoku. They then took us to a restaurant for our lunch break. The place looked decent enough so we ordered two dishes, one was this huge plate of really wide noodles with lamb and spicy sauce, and the other was supposed to be a mushroom dish, with weirdly textured mushrooms (at least I think they were mushrooms). The bill came and the total was over 100kuai for two dishes, wth, tourist trap. We were then whisked off to a dried fruit market, much like the dried fruit market they took us to in Dalian when I was in China last, they had many dried fruit sticks and my mom bought too much. Of course she did.

Finally, we got to the terracotta warriors site. The place is huge and takes a deal of walking to get to the pit sites. There are three pits in all, the first (main army) is the largest, the second (cavalry, infantry) has barely been excavated, and the third (command post) has a couple dozen fully excavated figures. The buildings that have been built around the pits are massive and the exhibits showcasing the different pieces are interesting enough. Needless to say, I took a good amount of pictures of those terracotta warriors. It was a nice, long day and by the time we got back to downtown Xi'an, we were exhausted.

In conclusion: Xi'an, a definite must visit while in China.
Tomorrow: More around Xi'an city, then onto Nanjing!

Also, we still don't have plane tickets from Elong, they're a really sucky booking service.

Airport Blunders: How we finally got to Xi'an

Elong.com may attract you with their low airline ticket and hotel rates, but foreign cardholder beware, the hassle you go through to actually get an airline ticket is not worth it. As it turns out, we had booked our tickets with them, thinking everything had gone smoothly (because we printed out our booking confirmation with them and such) we went to Pudong airport, upon check-in we were told that we had no tickets and had to miss our flight. What happened was that Elong claimed not to have received confirmation for use of my credit card, so cancelled my plane tickets without telling me that they cancelled it. So we were stranded at the airport while my mom made some frantic calls to the company which led to nothing, so in the end we paid nearly double the price for a ticket right at the airport. Interestingly enough, while I was waiting for my mom to make those frantic phone calls, a fight broke out right where I was standing. Some guy and his friends were late in checking in, so the airline attendent wouldn't let him check in, because the system wouldn't allow him. The guy got really angry, along with his friends who were shouting with him, and the guy went behind the counter and started HITTING the airline attendent. O_O This poor attendent merely told him that he could no longer check in and the system really wouldn't let him do it.
Anyhow, we finally made it to Xi'an! Luckily, the "hotel" we booked is nicer than the last "hotel" we were at in Shanghai (I add quotations because they were actually service apartments, but the phrase "service apartments" doesn't flow as nicely as the one-worded "hotel"). The first thing we did was find a place to eat, I was by then starving because I had not eaten the entire day (skipped out on breakfast, airport drama took the place of lunch). We were directed to De Fa Cheng, a self-proclaimed "legendary" restaurant with "delicious" dumplings. The dumplings were at best okay, I'm sure they'd taste better if they were steaming hot like most dumplings are, instead you order at a counter, place your order tabs on the side of your table while carts of pre-made dumplings are rolled around and dumped on your plate as they come by, leaving you with a plate of half warm, half room temperature dumplings. We also ordered some yang rou chuar when the appetizer cart came around, should've known, those were no longer warm either. I'm sure there's a strategic place you could seat yourself, next to the kitchen, to ensure that your dumplings are at least still hot-warm by the time they enter your mouth. At least the hotel is close to downtown.
After lukewarm dumplings, we wandered our way pass the drum tower and into the night market surrounding the Great Mosque in the Muslim quarter. This was a really big night market lined with souvenior hawkers, chuar grillers, candy makers, fruit driers, meat choppers, noodle rollers, sugar cane juicers, tea boilers, caricature drawers, rickshaw drivers (one of which almost took me out), all mixed in with crowds of pedestrians and would be consumers making for a very re nao (literally, 'hot bother') market. My feet actually hurt by the time I got back to the hotel (despite its close proximity to the sites). I thought going back to the hotel would be nice and relaxing, I'd just watch tv and sleep, but, no, I'm still trying to get Elong to book my tickets from Xi'an to Nanjing, which isn't happening right now.

To end, frusturated by tedious "booking" process on Elong, but happy about "hotel". We're going to take a Eastern tour tomorrow to see the terracotta army. Wish me luck!

Country Apple

Today was, indeed, a day of smelly alleys and stank bodies of still water. My mom had to take care of some business in a town outside of Shanghai, so today was devoted to getting that task done and getting ripped off at every turn. Now, I think of myself as a pretty "street smart" person when it comes to traveling and getting the best deals, but when it comes to traveling with my mom, I tend to leave things up to her because she's really picky. I enjoy walking everywhere or taking public transportation (i.e. the metro), but my mom prefers taking taxis when possible. This is how we came to spend a lot more money than we really needed to. We needed to get to the "fast train" toward Nanjing, the doorman told us to go to Shanghai Railway Station. We took a taxi to get there, asked the cabbie to take us there, he said Shanghai South Station also has the "fast train" toward Nanjing and it was a closer cab ride, so he took us there. Guess what, turns out there is no train toward Nanjing that passes through Kunshan (our destination) at Shanghai South Station. Bitch took us to the wrong place. So we took another taxi to the right station, the one the doorman told us in the first place. The taxi ride cost an extra 60rmb to the right station, I'm pretty sure the cabbie was taking the long way. He drops us off rather far from the train station, leaving us to find the entrance ourselves. My mom is sooo angry at this point that she yells at me for not knowing where to go, I apologize for not being familiar with a train station I've been to, maybe, twice (the last time I just remember running through it, trying to catch a bus to Huangshan, that wasn't so fun.. or maybe it was Beijing, in which case, no running was involved). We finally find the right place, but the tickets are sold out. Lame, so we decide to take a bus there instead, but the bus depot is on the other side of the station (the place we ran to prior to said Huangshan trip). We got our bus ticket and were finally on our way to Kunshan. Other incidents occurred that led my mom to be even less happy, but the upside of the entire day was that I ate xin jiang ban mian. :D

Anyway, even though today was less than stellar, I have tomorrow to look forward to. We're leaving for Xi'an at 1pm! Yay, terracotta army!

Oh yeah, the reference for today's title comes from a 朋友 who tried to trick her mind into thinking good smelling thoughts (like Bath and Body Works' Country Apple) when actually smelling stinky alley or mystery odor of shit.

Hope I'll have internet at the other hotels, if not, see you later!

Second Day Shenanigans

你好我的朋友們.
Xiaolongbao, shopping, going to the salon, and more shopping, that about sums up my day.
My shopping excursion started at S. Shaanxi Rd, a favorite shopping street of my Shanghai chums, and for good reason. I revisited the many shoes shops (many who sold only one size of each shoe), the many clothing shops (where I feel they get their merch off the back of a truck), and the many jewelry shops (particularly the one that advertised: all only 10kuai!). After wandering Shaanxi, we ate at this place called Red House, which is a restaurant that specializes in Western cuisine that was prevalent in Shanghai at the turn of the century. Overall a good place, nice decor, good food presentation, delicious soup, and good duck.

Then I continued on to Yu Yuan, the famous garden area that still showcases the old style buildings of the late 1800s Shanghai. My mom and I were trying to kill time before my hair appointment, and we achieved success by mindlessly wandering the streets surrounding Yu Yuan. I bought a leather purse (one that wasn't a knock off, unbelievable huh?) and a scarf (thus beginning my hording of scarves). We made my hair appointment and I got hit on by all three barbers who tended to my hair. I think I may have promised to host one of them if ever he comes to the U.S., god I hope not. I really need to improve my Chinese.
Wow, I am super tired and it's only 11pm here, but it is 7am Cali time.
Good night my 朋友, or good morning?

Shanghai Chronicles: December 2008

大家好! (Hello Everyone!)

Guess where I am?? That's right, as you can probably tell from the title of this post, I'm in Shanghai, China. I have definitively decided that I <3 China. I have also realized that this is the third straight year that I've gone to Shanghai, meaning, three consecutive Christmases have been spent right in China's economic capital. And I'm not tired of it at all.

I landed at Pudong Airport at around 7:30pm local time, that's 3:30am Pacific, then hopped on a taxi to my hotel. The taxi ride cost was 178rmb O_O, the exchange rate, btw, is about 6.77rmb for 1usd. Do you know how many scarves you can get with 178rmb??? (the answer is approx. 7)

I've missed the lights of the city and the familiar street names, but I do not miss the crazy driving. Although, at least Chinese drivers use their signals, unlike LA drivers.

Anyhow, even with my lingering cold, I soldier on as one should when embarking on a great adventure.
Please stay tuned for more!

Long long ago in a place called Rome

Hello all,
can you believe it's already the middle of November? Time passes incredibly fast when you're without work.. haha. Yes, I realize I promised updates from my European travels, but I got distracted by life. However, I did keep a sort of journal while traveling, so I will fulfill my previous promises and retroactively update everyone on the past trip.

Rome August 1 - 3

Our last day on the program in Sorrento was a Thursday that was spent at the Sorrento Lingue Center, frantically trying to finish and turn in our exams and papers. The night before I stayed up really late to finish my exams, pack my belongings, and clean our apartment I guess I shouldn't have been so surprised when I woke up late. I rushed to finish pack, dropped my excess luggage off at the center (because the staff was nice enough to let us keep our stuff there for the rest of our trip), turned in my exam and went back to get the luggage I would be traveling with, all before heading to the Circumvesuviana. We missed the train I had originally planned to take and arrived at the Napoli Garibaldi Station just in time to watch our train to Rome leave. Literally, I ran to the platform just to see the train whiz past my face. Now, we had experienced some displeasing incidences with Italian trains before, so I was super concerned that we would have to buy a completely new ticket and be ripped off by the Trenitalia, yet again. However, after a few minutes of worred wandering, I found out that we could just take the next train. So we did. The new train left only an hour later and we arrived in Rome at 2:30pm. We lugged our bags to the hotel and just sat on our beds for 2 hours, figuring out what we wanted to see in the next few days. We decided our first stop would be the Trevi Fountain, followed by a nice visit to the Spanish Steps. But then we decided we should probably eat before we did anything. Guess what we chose to eat? Yup, Chinese food.

Delicious, I had a simple chicken fried rice and it was wonderful.


Following our culinary trip to China..town, we wandered our way to the Trevi Fountain. We saw a bunch of really interesting buildings and statues along the way, most notably the Basilica Maria degli something.. the door to this place was cool in a creepy way as it had figures of human body parts coming out of the door:

Ah, there it is, the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli e dei Martiri.
If you look closely.. On the right there's a torso and head with a cross embeded into it. On the left there are body parts.



The Trevi Fountain (Fontana di Trevi, as the Italians call it) turned up after a couple of windy streets and the first thing we noticed was the immense crowd around the fountain. I'm sure the fountain is always crowded, come on, it's THE Trevi fountain.
On a side note, I found a picture of my uncle in front of the Trevi fountain from the 70's, I thought it was cool..
The fountain was indeed an attraction for good reason, it's huge! And detailed too, statues of tritons and horses and a guy named Oceanus are all over the place. We took a ton of pictures and I even threw a coin in, as everyone does, but I forgot to make a wish, whups.

After fighting our way out of the crowds, we started looking for the Spanish Steps (Piazza di Spagna, or Spanish Plaza, actually). By this time, night had fallen and the place was beautiful, all the lights were on and the crowd wasn't too massive. We climbed up the stairs, sat down, and opened a bottle of wine. We sat there drinking wine for an hour and a half, while taking all sorts of silly pictures. Definitely relaxing, I would return soon if given the chance...


See, the less than massive crowds, the top, where we chilled, wasn't this crowded, really.

We then headed back to the hotel, but not before getting some much needed gelato. A perfect ending to a perfect night.






The next day we went to the Coloseum (GLADIATORRRR), Piazza Fiori (chill outdoor market), Piazza Navona (cool statues), the Pantheon (huge hole in the ceiling, or opening to heaven), Piazza del Popolo (massive fountain, crazy man swimming in it), and the Trevi fountain (again).

Yea, that's the coloseum.

There it is again.












Hey look, a gladiator!

They were actually a little mean, but I guess everyone's gotta hustle to make a living.






I swear I was there!

Climbing in someone's house












The big hole in the ceiling at the Pantheon
We ended the incredibly HOT day with a meal of Eritrean food, there were a lot of Eritreans in the area where our hotel was located. If you've never had Eritrean food, go get some. They serve everything your party orders on a huge plate over this porous bread. You take a piece of the bread and grab some of the food in it and stuff it in your mouth. SO GOOD.

Sunday, the day of the lord, and we went to Vatican City. We attended mass in St. Peter's Basilica and it was unbelievable. First we go through a thorough security check (shoulders and knees need to be covered) then we walked through the crypt where they keep all the past popes and saints.. their corpses that is.. then we waited for the 10:30am mass. Anyone can go, so I did, despite the lack of Catholicism in my everyday life, I went for the experience. The Basilica is magnificent, everything is leafed in gold, the statues are plentiful, the molding and other decorations were intricate, and everything has a holy feel. If that makes any sense, which I guess it doesn't, it does to me...



See, I was also really in Vatican City, for real.






Us, sad >>

Sadly, and VERY unfortunately, the Sistine Chapel was CLOSED. Yes, I went all the way to Rome, spent a month and a half in Italy and never saw the Sistine Chapel, I may have failed as a traveler. Oh well, guess this means I have to return to Italy, I GUESS I don't mind. This was our last day in Rome so we ended it with a meal of.... Chinese food. Of course we did. We then ran to catch our bus to the airport and flew to Barcelona.

I must say, Rome is not over rated and lives up to its hype as a must visit destination.
This has been a really long update, and I've only covered Rome. I'll leave the other destinations for some other time. Hope you enjoyed!

Guess who's back

Hello!
I'm back in the good ol' United States of America. Well, I've been back for a few days now, but it's been busy. I actually stayed a few days in Washington D.C. before coming back to Chino Hills, land of cows and me, to visit a couple of friends. Europe was fun and I'm glad I got to see everything I did, but I've realized that I've seen more of the rest of the world than I have of my own country*. So my next outings should probably be closer to home and you are all invited. I'm going to hang out with family now, but I will be back with what I promised before, updates on my European travels!
Bye for now!


(*My own country being the one I was born in, not the motherland.)

All Prague-d Out

Ahoj! (Hello in czech or Cau in slovak)
It's my last night in Prague and I'm in an Italian cafe surrounded by Italians, watching the Olympics. Somehow it always comes full circle. I'm not ready to spend the night at the airport waiting for my 6am flight. The public transport system shuts down at midnight, so there really is no other option than to just tough it out at the airport. I'll be doing the same in Milan, can't wait. Well, it's been raining all day and it's freezing. Which is good for me because I packed for Italian weather. D: I've pretty much seen all of Prague and I must say I love gothic and baroque architecture, if only buildings in cali coulf be this interesting. The small town I ended up going to was the town of Plzen, the fourth largest city in the Czech Republic. Otherwise known as the birthplace of Pilsner beer. So guess what the first thing we did after getting off the bus? We went on the Pilsner beer factory tour.The place was huge, like the backlot of a hollywood studio. They showed us the bottling area, the big copper containers where they brew their beer, the raw materials they use, and even the cellars they used to store beer barrels. While in the very cold cellar, we got to try some unfiltered pilsner. It was quite good, sweet with a bitter finish. They really love their beer in this part of the world. After the tour, we walked around the city and saw the major sites in less than an hour, it was a rather small city, in comparison to everywhere else we've been, but small cities are nice too. When we got back to Prague, we walked around a mall and that's about it. The malls here are the same as in America, oh globalization.
Today, we got our souvenir shopping done, in the cold rain. I've decided I hate souvenir shopping because I can just imagine what ever I'm buying just sitting on a table (or under it) collecting dust, so I might as well not buy and just get myself a nice sweater. But then I have to let people know that I did not forget them while on my quest for world knowledge, so I must get some souvenir for them. so if my gift to you is tacky and/or crappy, tough, souvenir craftsmanship here is severely lacking and expensive.
I'll be back in the states in 5 days! And, to tell you the complete truth, I can't wait. I'm broke and tired and in need of a bit of familiarity! So when I get back, visit me or call, it would be much appreciated, along with some comments here.. :D
I'm going to go back to watching the czech vs australian women's olympic basketball game.
See you in Milan! Ciao.

Czech-ing Prague out

Hehe.. Get it.. Czech..Prague. So clever. Anyway, it's been a while since I've had a chance to update! I will have some massive information dump sometime, probably after my trip though. I'm in a McDonald's in Prague's Mala Strana eating a chicken salad and listening to Britney Spears. I know, I should be eating goulash or something, but I needed this salad, you wouldn't believe the amount of bread I've consumed on this trip, it's the cheapest food in the stores. Prague is amazing, the architecture is incredibly impressive. I lost myself on the edge of the city today, just walking around different neighborhoods and parks, not opening my mouth. Czech is definitely very different than any language I've ever learned, I can barely pronounce the street names (osvezujici anyone??).
I've discovered that I really enjoy gothic architecture, it's so ominous and creative, so I'm having a blast just looking at buildings. I have yet to visit Charles Bridge or Old Town, but I have 4 more days, I'm also gonna hit up a small town outside the city, see what country life is all about.
Enjoy those Olympic games everyone!

more to come

Sorry for the lack of posts! Been busy walking around the sites. I'll do a big post later, but right now other people are waiting for this one computer. I'm in Paris now and it's raining and cold. complete change from the unbearable heat of spain and italy. bye!

Musical Explosions

This past weekend was our last in Sorrento and we spent it enjoying the musical culture of the area. Thursday evening, we took a chartered bus to the town of Ravello, about an hour long (nauseating) ride along the windy coast of Amalfi, to watch a concert that was part of Ravello Festival 2008. Apparently, every summer, Ravello hosts a series of concerts and other artsy stuff. The concert was conducted by Jeffrey Tate and featured the Orchestra del Massimo Napoletano from the San Carlo Theatre in Naples (the longest fully running theatre ever) along with an opera singer during the second movement of the second act. The stage was set to a backdrop of the ocean and coast of Amalfi, definitely classy. The music was enjoyable and the opera set heartfelt. I guess I can like opera, but only in moderation.

Saturday Night was a Tarantella show down in the fishing village of Marina Grande. Tarantella is the traditional folk dance and song show of the region and is accompanied by a festival-type atmosphere. There were lots of candy selling stands, a moon bounce, bungee thing, and other craziness. We had dinner in the village, even though it´s known for being a bit pricey, but we were determined to have fish and chips. We found a nice restaurant with no cover fee and had a nice dinner, but when we paid the bill, they didn´t give us back the right change.. we tried to tell them but the language barrier made it difficult, in the end, after much confusion, we ended up only paying 9 euro total.. because we quickly walked away when they gave us more change.

Sunday.. we didn´t do anything except read and sleep.

Sorry I´m so delayed in blogging, but I´ve been distracted by the end of the program (i.e. papers and exams and stuff) and a trip to Rome left me with no computer for a while.
I´m now in Barcelona and will update the Rome trip in a bit.
CIAO

Erupting Volcanoes under the Capri Sun

Salve mi amici,
This past long weekend was spent with the entire class and professor. We went to the ruins of Pompei, the island of Capri, the ruins of Ercolano, and the city of Napoli.

Pompei: Disaster waiting to happen.
It is said that Mt. Vesuvius experiences a great eruption every 2000 years. The last huge eruption occurred in 79A.D. and wiped out the entire city of Pompeii (English spelling) with falling debris and ash. It's now 2008, so this next eruption can happen anytime, or so the professor told us right before entering the city. Comforting really. We had been to the Pompeii exhibit in San Diego and the one in Naples, now we were finally going to the actual scene of crime. The place was massive, incredible even, much more so than I had ever imagined. An entire city covered with ash and poisonous gases, killing all who stayed, burying them almost perfectly. We were lucky to have a Napoli native and anthropolgist show us around the site, giving us additional insight into the historical area. The forum, gymnasium, many villas and shops, etc. had all been excavated and preserved. I walked down the streets and through houses and imagined how daily life could have been for these ancient people. Casts of the final resting place for many Pompei-ians were found all over the grounds, in varying positions, most being in huddled fetal positions, no doubt trying to shield themselves from the fatal gases and debris coming from all sides. The most tragic cast I saw was one of a mother shielding her child in her arms. We had a long, full day at the ruins and were rather exhausted when we came back. Pompei is definitely a site one must visit if ever in the area, hopefully before the next great eruption of Vesuvius.

Capri Sun.
Okay, not really, the island was shrouded with clouds when we arrived in the morning, which wasn't a bad thing as it controlled the temperature for us. We hopped on a morning ferry and docked in the port of Capri after the half hour ride. We took a lift-type thing and were greeted by our professor's gregarious friend Maurizio. Maurizio has a house on the island and is very familiar with the trails that connect Capri to Anacapri and was willing to be our personal tour guide for the day. Now, the island of Capri is known to be a vacation getaway for the rich and famous from all over the world, not a field trip destination for a group of poor college students. However, with Maurizio's help, we got to see the island's true beauty, off the beaten path. We were treated to an expansive hike through the villas in the hills and to the top of the mountain between Capri and Anacapri. Amazing views all around, one can definitely see why the rich come here to get away from it all. To clarify, Capri is the tourist side of the island and Anacapri is the side where the locals live. We had lunch/dinner at a small trattoria (kitchen/restaurant) and were happily surprised when the professor decided to use our funds to pay for it. I had a wheat crouton and olive salad, which was a refreshing change from all the nutella sandwiches I've been having. After our meal, Maurizio decided to show us one last place before we had to head back to Sorrento. He led us up a path, through a filosofica garden and to the edge of the world. Or that's what it looked like anyway. This place was a small look out on top of sheer cliffs that looked directly out to the ocean. An ocean sight that was untouched by any landmasses, thus making it look like the end of the world. I will indeed post pictures when I can, but they won't be able to capture the full immensity of this place.

Ercolano: A Forgotten City.

Saturday morning began with an early train to the city of Herculaneum (Ercolano in Italian). This town was dirty and smelt of garbage and was supposedly not the best place to be at night, at least that's what our landlord's son told us. Why, then, did we want to visit this area? The volcanic eruption of 79A.D. that preserved Pompeii under layers of ash had covered Ercolano with molten lava. This place was thought to be lost until the 1700s when some kings decided to excavate the area. It was because of the cover of volcanic debris and extreme heat that the city was preserved so well, however, once excavated and exposed to air, the ruins have begun to deteriorate. So, the current focus for officials here is to preserve what they have already found. It was amazing to see how well these buildings and artifacts were preserved knowing that they were once covered with lava. They even found skeletal remains of about 55 people around the shore area, clustered there in an attempt to flee by boat. Ercolano was a smaller and wealthier town in comparison to the trading port town of Pompei, the main physical difference being the presence of a sewage system. But enough history, the place was immense, but not as much as Pompeii because it's still not all excavated. We stayed until the early afternoon, hopped back on the Circumvesuviana, and headed toward Napoli.

Napoli: My Chinese food Mecca.

Our small group of nine had been talking about food for three straight days. We were tired of bread, nutella, pasta, tomato sauce, sandwiches, and whatever crap we throw together in a sad attempt to make a balanced diet. A few of us had been craving Indian food, but upon walking down Corso Umberto (the main street in Napoli) we were disappointed to find no Indian food, we were about to give up and settle for another friggin pizza, but Eureka! I spotted a Chinese ristorante. Chang cheng jiu lou (translation: Great Wall Restaurant), I knew there was Chinese food in Naples, I just had to find it. Though it was not Indian food, I think we were just yearning for ethnic food. This place was better than the first Chinese restaurant we went to a few weeks back. The setting was nicer, cleaner plates and utensils, Chinese pop music playing quietly in the background.. Awesome. I shared some curry chicken and shrimp with bamboo shoots with Khadjia. We were greatly satisfied. I even had a sweet mantou for "dessert". I'm not too sure what was in it, but it was delicious. We visited the Castel Nuovo after, which we had skipped on the first time we were in Naples because of the 5 Euro entrance fee, but now we had our Artecards, which give us free entrance to most museums and monuments in the Campania area. We wandered around the 13th century fortress for lack of anything else to do, we were really just waiting for our boat back to Sorrent. We were tired from the full day of ruin walking. After awhile, we just sat down in the courtyard area to chill for a bit. Not long after sitting down, an Italian lady came up to me and asked if I was Japanese, before I could answer, she asked if I ate cats. I really hoped I was hearing wrong because it was all in Italian, but she gestured while saying "mangiare" which means eat and "gatti" the plural form of cat, and proceeded to bite the air in front of my face. All I could do was shake my head no, and before I could wrap my head around the situation, she walked off. I guess she really thought the Japanese ate cats, although she had a crazy look in her eyes...

That's how my third weekend on this program went, we don't have much planned for this next weekend, just a trip to Ravello for a music festival and maybe we'll splurge for a seafood dinner.

Pictures now, enjoy!

Weak jumping picture in a forum in Pompei.

Perfect statue.

Class photo in Pompei with Mt. Vesuvius in the back.

Eating in Capri, we could only afford thin breadsticks.

At the end of the world in Capri w/Maurizio in the background.

Chilling in a male bath in Ercolano

Jumping picture with the professor in Ercolano.

The entire Sorrento crew at our sweet apartment.

Bread and Nutella: Trial and Errors in the North

This past weekend consisted of our trip to Northern Italy. We took a night train to Venice Wednesday night to Thursday morning, spent the night at a budget hotel in Venice, Friday afternoon we took a train to Florence, spent two nights in Florence and took a train to Pisa Sunday morning. From Pisa we took a train to Rome, from Rome we took a train to Naples, and from Naples took the Circumvesuviana back to Sorrento, all on Sunday.
Let's start with the train ride to Venice.
The first half of the ride went rather smoothly, our ticket specified the wrong car number so we just assumed our seats were in the next car over, because they were in numerical order, then, at around 2:30am, a group of Italian guys start banging on our door (we were in one of those enclosed seating areas with six seats) saying that we are in their seats. We show them our ticket, but realize they have the same seats, they start harrassing us while we try to get the conductor (who NEVER came). The harrassing consisted of a constant bang on the windows, pointing and laughing at every little thing we did, and just overall rudeness. This continued on for the good part of 2 hours, after which they disappeared somewhere, never to be seen again. I hope. We arrived in Venice at approximately 5:30am, sleep deprived and hungry. The city was asleep and gorgeous. The view that greeted us as we stepped out from the train station was like a picture on a postcard. Bridges spanning over the Grand Canal and boats floating around. There were backpackers asleep on the steps, but that was cool, just gave me ideas on how to save money next. We sat on some steps and ate bread with Nutella before walking through a maze of alleyways to reach San Marcos Square. We got to see the quiet side of Venice. The Venice sans crowds of bumbling tourists and pushy souvenir hawkers was refreshing to say the least. St. Mark's Cathedral was beautiful with all the gold leaf and other religious art and the Guggenheim Art Collection was just cool. I got to be all artsy staring at Picasso's, Dali's, Pollock's, Kadinsky's, Brancusi's, and one Modigliani painting. Within the 24 hours we were there, I felt like we saw a good portion of Venice, enjoyed the atmosphere, RODE A GONDOLA, and had good sandwiches. A definite must see for those thinking about going to Italy. We wanted to explore the night life, but there was none! Everything closed at about 7:30pm, so we caught up on our lost sleep. The next day we shopped around a bit and got to the train station early. We people watched a bit while eating our pizzas and hopped on the train.
Train ride from hell to Florence.
Okay, maybe it wasn't that bad, but our train experienced engine failure and stopped in the middle of a tunnel for about an hour before dropping us off in the middle of nowhere (Grizzana??). We got on a train to Prato and changed trains to Florence from there, this whole train business took us most of our day and left us only time to watch all the shops close as we got into the city. We took a few buses (our train stop was not in the center of town) to our campsite and the bus dropped us off in Piazza Michelangelo. This piazza greeted us with a huge statue of Michelangelo's David and an incredible view of the entire city of Firenze. This campsite we stayed at, really was a campsite, we stayed in tents with beds, next to families camping out in for real tents and RVs. There were young people getting drunk in there bar/food area, so it was a lively atmosphere. We met this guy from New Zealand, who tried to get us to go out to the bars around there, but we decided we would just go the next night, as we were really tired by then. We got up later than I planned the next morning and set off for the center of town. First on our unplanned itinerary was the Uffizi Gallery. We had to wait about 2 hours to get into this art gallery, but it was worth the wait. I got to see Botticelli's Primavera and Birth of Venus in person! Both those paintings were huge, much bigger than I had imagined them to be. I saw a lot more Botticelli, lots of Carravaggios, some Da Vinci's, some Michelangelo's... basically every Renaissance artist you've learned about at some point in school. That took up most of the day and we left the gallery only to discover how incredibly hot the sun had become. We quickly made the decision to visit the Duomo, supposedly the most perfect Dome, ever. Before arriving at the Duomo, we stopped for some lunch at a kebab place, BEST food I've had since coming to Italy, really (I'm sick of bread, mozzarella, prosciutto, pasta, tomato sauce..) Anyhow, with stomachs full, we headed toward the Duomo. When we got there, we were sad to see that it had closed, but decided to go around to get some pictures. As we rounded the corner, we saw one of the guards signalling to some people to quickly come in. He let us into the cathedral! and we got to climb 463 stairs to the top of this thing. I only remembered my fear of heights when we stepped outside onto the terrace on the roof of the Duomo. Climbing up the stairs was no small feat and images of monks running up and down during the 14th century flashed in my mind's eye.. weird. We were treated to a magnificent 360 degree view of Florence and stayed until they kicked us out. It was peaceful up on the dome and I would go back if given a second chance. We shopped around a bit after that and walked around, passing many more chieses (churches), and the building containing the actual David statue. I didn't feel like shelling out 10 euro to see the thing, so I didn't. I used my haggling skills and bought a belt, as my pants were in danger of falling off (lack of dryer has stretched out my clothes).. I didn't buy too much more here and was pretty good about not buying random crap. yay. We discovered the 99 euro cent stores and bought some beer to drink back at the campsite and headed back after walking around for what felt like forever. We played King's cup back at the campsite and headed to bed early, in preparation for our 4am wake up call..
A hurried Sunday.
I awoke to find that it was already 5:30am and we were in danger of missing our train. We all grabbed our possessions and ran out the door without brushing our teeth or washing our faces. Took a long hike/run (just for me though) to a bus stop that took us to the central train station. Ended up that our train was late and we made the train, but it didn't leave so we had to take another train from Florence to Pisa. In my haste, I forgot to validate my ticket (get a time stamp on it or something) and after much arguing with the train man, got fined 40 euro (80 USD!!!!). I totally got gypped, as the people before me only got fined 10 euro (which I only found out later, thanks for the heads up [SARCASM]) and I was told by our prof's wife that people can also just write the date on the ticket. damn you Italy, you got me this time! I was really frusturated for the first half of the day, but reasoned that it was just a really expensive lesson in watching out for yourself first, because no one else will. Anyhow, after that little incident, we went to see the leaning tower of Pisa, a.k.a. the bell tower of Cathedral. This mistake in architectural engineering leans because someone forgot to take into consideration the looseness of the soil they built the tower on. In fact, most of the monuments in Pisa have a slight tilt because of this soil impediment, but they won't admit their shoddy planning.. Anyway, we took the picture that EVERYONE takes at the leaning tower and were finished with the place in under an hour. Really, the only thing to see there is all in one place. I bought some souvenirs and we headed toward the train station. We caught an earlier train back to Rome, during which I fell in and out of consciousness. We arrived in Rome and I took one step outside of the train station just so I could say I've been in Rome.. I bought some bread at the supermercato there and utilized my Nutella, again. Got on the train to Naples, got off, got on the train to Sorrento, and arrived back to our small town of Sorrento. The town of Sorrento has some new lighting additions, which makes me feel as if I'm in some sort of movie or something..
Anyhow, recap: Loved Venice, loved Florence, amused with Pisa, angry at Italian trains.
More about prices later...
Next: Pompeii, Capri, Ercolano, and Naples (again)

Weekend Wanderings

Ciao mi amici!
My first full conversation with a non-shady person living in Italy took place yesterday in Naples with the waitress at a Chinese pizzeria, in Chinese and Italian. It was quite an experience. Sundays, as we know, are holy days, and especially so in Italy because EVERYTHING was closed, including food places, except McDonalds and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale food cart (Yes, I went to that museum again). The only thing I could afford at McDonalds was the 1 euro McToast, which is just 2 pieces of very flat toast with a slice of ham and cheese in the middle. At this point, we were all starving, but because I had been without food so long, this flat McToast was able to fill my SHRUNKEN stomach organ. We then ventured up large hill to the Capodimonte Museum, old palace of the Bourbons, where we wandered for a few hours. After much art musing, we were, again, very hungry. We had all been craving non-Italian food all day (not to say Italian food isn't good, but bread and pasta everyday gets old, really fast) and were overly ecstatic to see that a Chinese Pizzeria Ristorante was open. We hesitantly entered the establishment and were immediately confused. Loud Hindi(?) music was blasting from the speakers and brown people were dancing around, apparently a first communion celebration or something was going on.. at a Chinese restaurant. Geo was trying to speak to the waitress in Spanish, because that's what he uses instead of Italian, and the lady did not understand, at all. Then I spoke up with a, "Do you speak Chinese?", in Chinese of course. The waitress, very surprised, replied, "Yes! You speak Chinese? Are you Chinese because I only thought she (pointing to Aimee) was Chinese." Now, Aimee is Japanese, and no one ever thinks I'm Chinese, except Italians, because they think the only Asians in existence are Giapponese and Cinese. So we were able to get through dinner with my less than fluent Chinese, and it was a rather satisfying meal, albeit, expensive for sweet and sour pork with rice. I'm going to have to suck up my economical instincts and just be willing to spend money for food, the prices (and exchange rate) aren't going to change for the better. In all, yesterday was a unique experience and a perfect example of globalization (and switching, for all you linguistists).

The rest of the weekend (Thursday to Saturday) consisted of a good deal of walking, a lot, really.
Thursday:
We went to Positano, an hour bus ride from Sorrento along the coastal cliffs of the Amalfi coast, stunning views, just amazing. We hiked down the windy roads to the "beach" and swam in the ocean. The water was amazing and the sun beat down, but the rocks were painful and burning hot. I had a sandwich at this little deli called Vini e Panini (Wine and Sandwich) and attempted to eat it on the steps of a church, but was promptly shooed away by the five oh. We got back and felt we didn't get enough use out of our 24 hour bus ticket, so hopped on the next bus to Marina Grande. Marina Grande is a very, very, small fishing village next to Sorrento, accessed by some steep roads through a cliff. Smelt of fish.
Friday:
Happy American Independence Day! We walked (or, rather, wandered) to a neighboring town by the name of Sant'Agnello. Also beautiful beach views, but also many lemon growing houses or complexes or areas. I was very tempted to knock lemons off the trees, but was convinced half of them were run by the mafioso.. iono.. or not. The walk was long, but enjoyable, to me anyway and we got back in time to take a nap before gathering for a 4th of July potluck. I brought some not-very-well-seasoned pasta that I managed to cook up our electric burner and a limone torte. We drank some white wine before heading out to check out the Sorrento nightlife. First place we went to was called Danielle's Bar, which boasted "karaoke and dancing". The place was half dead and those there were either around 15 years old or 45 years old. I stupidly decided to get a drink, which ended up being 7 euros (wtf), and had a grand old time singing a Backstreet Boys song to the entire club, with help, of course. The club was lame and I very much regret dropping 14 bucks on one drink. We decided to hop on over to a place called English Inn. There was a huge crowd waiting to get into the place, so we thought we wouldn't get in, but then I noticed it was only guys waiting around and realized that girls got in easily. We walked straight through the crowd and through the doors without even trying. This was where we got to experience where Italian men get the stereotype of being.. very forward. At least we got to practice our Italian.
Saturday:
Started late as we were all recovering from the night before. We took a bus to Meta, another neighboring town, and quickly got right back on the return bus. There wasn't very much in Meta and we wanted to save a bus ticket by riding it within the 45 minute time limit our tickets gave us. We got off at Piano di Sorrento (if I remember correctly), which is past Sant'Agnello and walked around, we walked so much we ended up back in Sorrento. We didn't get to shop or anything because we were there right during siesta, which is the time between 1pm and 4:30pm where people eat and nap. We ended the night with gelato and window shopping before sleeping early to get up for an early start in Naples.

What: 45 minute bus ticket/24 ore bus ticket
Where: purchased at any Tabacchi shop
How much: 2/6 euro

What: McDonald's McToast
Where: any Italian McDonald's
How much: 1 Euro
Experience: McDonald's is overpriced here, it's better to just save yourself the frusturation and disappointment, and not go. It doesn't have anything that's really unique (like taro pies or rice patty chicken sandwiches) as in other country's McDonald's.

What: Museo Capodimonte
Where: Via Capodimonte in Napoli
How Much : 7,50 Euro (I think, at this point we have a Campania ArteCard that allows us access to most sites in the Campania area)
Experience: Huge museum, worth it, be prepared for lots of walking.

What: Gelato
Where: Most gelateria's in Sorrento
How Much: 2 Euro for a piccolo (small)
Experience: Delicious, over all, at least all the flavors I've tried.

What: Clubs in Sorrento
Where: Sorrento, there aren't that many
How much: free entrance, ridiculous drink prices.
Experience: Danielle's club was extremely disappointing, small venue, lame crowd, lame music that is interrupted if someone wants to karaoke. LAME. English Inn is better, larger, outside venue, more of an Italian feel (aka skeezy and/or suave Italian men), better music when they actually play hip hop (though they usually play techno or house or whatever crap). You can also just chill off the dance floor.

What: Circumvesuviana train ride from Sorrento to Naples and back.
Where: train station
How much: 5,20 euro
Experience: 1 and a half hour ride on a bus covered in more, colorful graffiti than any place in L.A.

Thanks for surviving through the long post, or not. Bye!

Next: Weekend up North.

I made your sorbet, limone.

Buon giorno,
The gelato factory i went to yesterday was, as I had very much suspected, just the back room of the Gelato place we were shown the other day. Another student and I got to make Limone Sorbetto, not gelato, but it's okay, I guess. We squeezed half a liter of lemons, added 2 different types of sugar along with some water, mixed, and dumped it into the mixer machine, which then twirled around, scraping ice into the mixture until it became sorbet. It was delicious, if I say so myself, pictures will be posted sometime... We were stranded for a bit in the gelato store because it started to pour, for the second time in three or so days, but we didn't mind because we had gelato. But, now I have to redo my laundry because I had clothes out on the balcony, waiting to dry. lame.
We've made friends with the waiter who served us our first meal in Sorrento. Funny guy, he has the best lines for luring in the patrons. He's helped us perfect some of our Italian phrases.
Every Tuesday, a type of farmer's market is held in Sorrento, half an hour walk up a hill from our place, a lot farther than we thought. They sell clothes, fruits, vegetables, candy, bread, meat, etc.. stuff you'd find at any farmer's market, but much cheaper. I got some fruits and pastry things. The guys that sell the pastries load your bag up with what ever you point to, even if you say you only want a little.. Aimee's total came to 8 Euro, yikes. We then went to class and learned about plurals.
Last night, I was determined not to get a new mosquito bite, so I wore long pj pants and covered myself up to my head with the bed sheet. I awoke an hour later to the sound of a buzzing insect and itchy/painful fingers. I also realized that my eyelid felt very heavy. I turned on the light and saw that the little fucker got my left pinky and right thumb, along with my right eyelid. Needless to say, my right eyelid is puffy and uncomfortable and my thumb is numb. MOTHERTRUCKER. This was the same eyelid that got bitten when I went to Nanjing in the Fall, where my entire right side of my face swelled up. This time, I took some Benadryl right away, and the swelling isn't as bad, but still swollen. fucking bugs.
Sorrento is a beautiful place, but filled with tourists. It's an expensive place to live and I'm beginning to question the soundness of my choice to go here for school. The program we're on is much more disorganized than I ever thought any UC program could be and there's almost zero accountability when it comes to where our money has gone. But I digress, this is a fun blog.
The views here are amazing, especially from our balcony. Out of the four apartments where students of our program are staying, our's has the best views. The front balcony has a view of the main square and the ocean. And the rear balcony (yes we have 2 balconies) has a view of the mountains and our neighbor's yards. I'll definitely have to post pictures of those soon.
I must apologize for the lack of photos. I did not bring my laptop with me and I'm still debating whether or not these computers we're using have the capacity to upload the amount of photos I have. Soon though, soon.
We're in the midst of planning our weekend excursion, hopefully we can come to a concensus about where we want to go. I'm rooting for Sicily.

Ciao my friends!

Next: Weekend excursion.

Sorrento: Hot Hot Heat

The heat and humidity just does not let up! At least I'm getting a good tan. Classes have started, four hours a day of linguistical magic. Aiya, I have a degree in Management Science, which has NOTHING to do with what I'm studying here, however, I am learning a great deal and have, kind of, gotten interested in some of the material. Mostly the gesture class where we get to people watch for class credit. The people in my small program are cool people, but they're going to have to do a lot more to get up to my Shanghai people level of cool. haha. I'm going to a gelato factory now, so I'll have to update more later.

Bye!

Finally in Napoli

Buon giorno!
My roommate (Aimee) and I have finally made it to Naples. This is our second day in Italy and already we're pros at the whole speaking Italian thing.. not. I feel like a huge idiot everytime I open my mouth, so mostly I just say, "Si, grazie." I am, however, getting rather good at ordering gelato and granita di limone (much like frozen lemonade but better).
The flight to Italy, was long, but only because we had a 4 hour lay over at JFK, where I had to sit in an un airconditioned airplane for 45 minutes because the control tower caught fire. After a 9 hour flight (during which we were served salmon, yes fish on a plane, and pasta, best airplane food I've ever had), we landed in Rome and transfered to a flight headed for Naples. Already, at the Roman airport, I saw a VERY good looking Italian guy, fashionably dressed, so I took a picture, under the guise that I was taking a photo of Aimee.. stalker style.
We got to Napoli at around 3pm, and took the Alibus to our hostel. The bus driver, who had an adorable son who was helping him collect bus fare, was incredibly nice and even made a special stop just for us, right in front of our hostel. Random passenger on the bus was also very nice, told us about the local sights and showed us to our hostel's front door. We've just met really nice and interesting people so far. I'm beginning to like Italy, hah.
In the two days that we've been here, we did a huge amount of walking. Yesterday, was solely a walking tour of the city, and today was too, with a few stops at some castles, piazzas, a cathedral, and the museo archeologico nazionale di napoli. A very historical tour indeed. I actually met up with Steve, a friend I traveled around with in Shanghai, last night. He just happened to be in Naples the day I arrived, so I decided to stay in the same hostel as him, our little group went to Kestè, a small bar not too far from our hostel, and had beer while watching a small group of musicians play some very modern music (a.k.a . noise). This small group grew increasingly large as the night progressed, and when we left, there was a huge crowd watching the musicians, stilt walker, unicycler, and random other characters.
The shower that night, was THE most refreshing shower I've ever had, pretty much because I had spent a day and a half on airplanes and half a day sweating my pores dry. Not very different from Taiwan or Shanghai, actually. Our hostel comes highly recommended, clean rooms, AIR CONDITIONING, and nice staff. It's right across from the port of Naples, and is called Hostel Bella Capri. Must thank Steve for recommending the place, he left this morning on a train headed for Venezia (I think). It was cool seeing him in Italy because I've really only seen him in China, getting chased by young Chinese girls asking for hugs and kisses...
After breakfast, provided by the hostel, Aimee and I headed for the Castel Nuovo, only a 10 minute walk along the port and up a stinky alley. We went into the gates and that's about as far as we got because we didn't think going in was worth the 5£ (and by lira, I mean euro). So we continued up the street, through some malls and ended up getting a granita di limone. After that refreshing break, we headed to the Castel dell'Ovo, which is on a pseudo island thing and free to get in. The castle was closed for construction. LAME. So we turned around after walking in the burning sun and headed up the street. We decided to go to the Museo Archeologico Nazionale and finally got there after haf an hour of walking. Entrance fee was 6,50£, no student discounts unless you're a resident of the EU. Lots of very old Roman stuff inside, i.e, coin hoards, glass vases, pots, statues, mosaics, paintings, other random relics, and an erotic room. You know, the usual... yes, an erotic room, only pictures can convey the graphic-ness of this self-proclaimed secret room, which shall be posted later, I promise. Following the museum, we went to Castel Capuano (which had been converted into the Justice building) and the Duomo (cathedral). The cathedral was more than a little elaborate, as most cathedrals are in Europe, and we even went into the crypt, which smelled like stale air, among other unique smells.
After this, I decided it was time for dinner, which we had already decided would be pizza. We went to a well-known-among-travel-guide-readers pizzaria and had the best pizza I've ever had in my life. A pizza magherita, so simple yet so delicious. The waiter guy was also very nice and our small pizza turned out to be as big as the large pizza. We left full of tomato-y satisfaction, the first meal we had to pay for since we've been here, awesome. I am now back in the hostel, trying not to sweat anymore.

So this is how it's gonna be, at the end of these posts, I'll try my hardest to summarize where I went/ate, if it was any fun/good, and how much it cost.

What: Granita di Limone
Where: Cafè Vesuvio; Museo Archeologico Nazionale cafe
How Much: 1,50£ and 2£
Verdict: Very good both times, but the one at the museum was better because it wasn't as sour.

What: Pizza Magherita
Where: Antica Pizzaria di Michele
How Much: 4,50 for the small
Verdict: AMAZINGly delicious

What: Castel Nuovo
Where: somewhere along the port
How much: 5£
Verdict: looked cool from the outside, but wasn't impressive enough for me to spend 5£ on.

What: Castel dell'Ovo
Where: connected island thing off the port
How Much: free
Verdict: cute surroundings, but under construction so I didn't get to go in.

What: Museo Archeologico Nazionale
Where: Piazza Museo Nazionale, 19, 80135 Napoli
How Much: 6,50£
Verdict: good museum, worth the fee, but no A/C

What: Castel Capuano
Where: I forget
How Much: free
Verdict: nice guard, but it's just the house of justice now.

What: Duomo
Where: Via Duomo
How much: Free
Verdict: awesome cathedral, elaborate as expected, but must cover shoulders!


Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think of this work in progress site, what do you guys want to hear about??

Next: Arrival in Sorrento

New Beginnings

Welcome to my travel/food blog, not to be mistaken for a travel food blog. The difference: I don't just take pictures of food found whilst abroad, I take pictures of any worthwhile food that goes into my mouth and most foods I make with my hands, and I happen to really enjoy traveling.
I've been fortunate enough to be able to study abroad a few times, in Shanghai, China during Fall 2007 and Taiwan during Summer 2005, and will be studying abroad once again in Sorrento, Italy this summer. I have my wonderful mom to thank for that, as she also feels international experiences will strengthen my general understanding of the world, so thanks mom.
This blog is a few years in the making, I've thought about blogging for a long time, but have been too lazy/busy to actually start/keep up one. My last attempt at keeping track of my travels can be found on xanga. But don't bother to read it unless you want to kill a few brain cells.
Hope I keep up with this one. I want to thank all the readers in advance, you must have great patience!


Here's a first picture

Delicious signature dish called xiao long bao from the famous Ding Tai Fung in Beijing.

Enjoy that little peek of things to drool over. (not just food, hah)


Next: Where I'm headed to--a preliminary itinerary.