Weekend Away

This weekend my mom, Aunt Judy and I are headed to the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri. Emily's parents purchased a motel there, so we're taking advantage of the friends and family discount. I'm excited to see the lake again. It's tons of fun there. Hopefully we get good weather.

I'll wrap up the trip when I get back. Until then, here are some of the Steven Wright quotes that inspire the reaction mentioned in the Quote Wall.

"I told my girlfriend I was going out for a walk. She asked me how long I would be gone and I told her...'the whole time.'"

"I know these Siamese twins. They moved to England so the other one could drive."

"I went to a restaurant that served breakfast anytime. I ordered french toast from the Renaissance."
Thanks Chris!

New Forms of Exercise

So this summer I've been trying to find some new ways to get some exercise besides my traditional run. Don't get me wrong, I have actually come to enjoy running. But in the summer heat there is nothing I enjoy less. I'm really more of a fall and spring runner. So I have started walking or biking to run errands that are near by, instead of jumping in the car. This has proven to be a very relaxing form of exercise. I'm getting stuff done, and burning a few calories while I'm at it. Today I plan on walking to the post office and Target, a total trip of 3.67 miles. A while ago I found this awesome website that will calculate calories burned for various exercise, and will give you the nutritional information of a bunch of food, including eating out. The website is:
http://www.caloriesperhour.com/
So according to calories per hour.com, I will burn about 250 calories per hour that I walk. Not too bad. It's way better than the calories I would burn driving to these places.

It's the little things

Last night Joe and I went for a walk and it dawned on me that while Europe is a great place to visit, I'm really glad we live here. It truly is the little things that make this true. When we were out walking, many times we would come across a group of people walking in the other direction. In order for all of us to traverse the same sidewalk, it was common practice that the members of both groups will make some accommodation for the other, by squeezing over, or walking one behind the other. In my opinion this is the courteous thing to do. Apparently this is not true in Italy. There it's like one big pedestrian game of chicken. Joe and I could be walking down the street and be coming up on a group of 6 people coming the other way, and none of them would budge. None. It was really weird. It is funny how those little things make you happy to be home.

TOP TEN VACATION MEMORIES

Here are the top ten things we will remember about our trip...

10. ROOFTOP POOL: It was so nice to have two days at the end of the vacation to just lounge by the pool, doing nothing. We were even able to snag Joe an umbrella to lay under so his pasty white skin could remain pasty white. And who wouldn't love to lay by a pool that has a view like this...

9. FIREWORKS IN VENICE: It was really cool to get caught up in the throngs of Venetians celebrating one of their biggest festivals. Although we didn't stay for the entire 1 hour fireworks show, we will never forget such a unique experience.8. MINIBUS RIDE: Never had I thought I was closer to death than in the backseat of that minivan. It makes me appreciate the drivers here in the U.S. There are some pretty bad ones, but at least they tend to obey posted traffic signs and signals.

7. BEER GARDENS: When I imagined Munich, I figured there would be beer gardens and sausage carts all over the city. Well, there weren't any sausage carts that I saw, but I was dead on about the beer gardens. I haven't spent two days drinking nothing but beer since college.

6. GETTING SCAMMED: As much as we gave each other crap for our gulibleness (is that a word?) it would have been disappointing had neither of us fallen for the well known Roman scams.

5. OVERNIGHT TRAIN: This is an experience that you just don't get in the U.S. I'm used to being lulled to sleep by the movement of a car, but the rocking of the train is on a whole new level. Although, it did seem like the ground was rocking for about a day afterwards.

4. ROMAN RUINS: It really was amazing how well preserved some of these ruins were. Just imagining that some famous people in history had walked the very same paths were were walking was pretty mind blowing.

3. BIKE RIDE IN MUNICH: There is really no better way to tour this city. You can go at your own pace, stop at as many beer gardens you want, and really take in what it would be like to live there.

2. SISTINE CHAPEL: Really the only way to describe how this affects you is awestruck. It is absolutely unbelievable the work that went into this work of art. Every person should see this at one time in their life.

and the number one memory of our vacation is....

1. ANNIVERSARY IN ROME: I know they say that the gift for the third year is leather....but Rome is SO much better.

TOP TEN WORST VALUES FOR THE MONEY

Here are the top ten things we wished we didn't have to shell out the euros for:

10. BREAD: Coming from a country where they will put a basket of bread on your table to help pass time while your waiting for your food, is was weird seeing upwards of a 4 euro bread charge.

9. WATER: It seems a little Communistic to charge you for something that you can get for free at any fountain in the city.

8. MONTE CARLO CASINO: I know that the goal of a casino is to take you for all your worth. I guess I just didn't think that included paying 10 euro just to get on to the casino floor. We opted to gamble at our hotel casino, not as famous, but I won 70 euro playing black jack.

7. NUESCHWANSTEIN CASTLE: I knew that this castle inspired Cinderella's castle at Disneyworld, but I guess If I wanted to see an amusement park castle, I wouldn't have flown all the way to Germany.

6. POPE? POPE WHO?: We found out that the pope will go out to St. Peter's square every Wednesday morning and give a large blessing to that gathering of people, and anyone can attend. Well I guess he was just too tired from his Obama visit, because the one Wednesday we were there, he was on vacay and we didn't get to see him.

5. GLASS MUSEUM: On the island of Murano, in Venice, they have many different glass blowing factories. It's what they are famous for. I figured that a place called the Glass Museum might have a demonstration of the process. Boy was I wrong. All they had were a bunch of really old vases and bowls. I could have seen that same thing at a weekend garage sale. Joe disputes this item on the list however, because he was having some "pressing issues" and was happy to pay the 5.50 euro each to use the WC.

4. COKE-A-COLA: Let's just say we really had to break any coke addiction we had because we weren't about to pay 3-4 euro for the equivalent of half a can of coke.

3. EXCHANGE RATE: For our trip we were looking at about 1 euro = 1.42 dollars. So that meant 5 euro = 7.10. This was bad enough, but in Venice Joe decided to exchange some American cash we had at an exchange place. These places are as bad as the Check into Cash places here. They charge you 15% just to make the exchange. The best way to go was withdrawing money from the ATM.

2. SEA BASS DINNER: I mentioned this experience in a previous post, but it still has to be some of the worst money we spent. I think in the future I'll stick to pizza and pasta in Rome.

and the number one worst value for the money...

1. FIZZANTE WATER: Imagine the scenario...you've been walking for miles in Roman Ruins. 5 hours in the hot blazing sun. You want nothing more than a ice cold bottle of water. You decide to bite the bullet and pay 3 euro for a bottle of water from the corner store. You grab the bottle, happily fork over the money, step outside to take your first drink...and you get fizzy water. I don't know what the Europeans see in this water. I was never more disappointed than I was at that moment. From that point on, I always made sure my water had "no gas".

Channeling my inner David Letterman

As Joe and I laid by the pool on our last day of vacation, we decided to make some top ten lists about our vacation. I was going to post them while we were still in Monte Carlo, but I didn't want to pay 8 euro for 15 minutes of Internet time. So, a little late, but still true, here are our top tens.

TOP TEN BEST VALUES FOR THE MONEY

10. MASSAGES IN MONTE CARLO: Although they were quite expensive, there really is nothing better than being pampered and rubbed down after 10 days of grueling sightseeing.

9. ROMA PASS: This card got us in to two sights free, gave us three days of free transportation, and allowed us to skip to the front of the line. Not to bad for only 23 euro.

8. RICK STEVE'S AUDIO GUIDE: For free, we downloaded his podcasts for a lot of the tourist sites. This saved us up to 9 euro at some places and helped us to know what the pile of rocks we were looking at really was.

The huts where Romulus and Remus lived

7. HOUSE WINE: For only 6 euro, Joe and I could down a liter of wine with our dinner. This is a great deal, especially since Joe doesn't drink a lot of wine, and would get very giggly.

6. BUS TO THE AIRPORT: When we originally asked the transportation "experts" about getting to the airport in Venice, they told us a water taxi would take us there for 100 euro. After asking three more people, getting three more different answers, we found out there was a bus for 2.50 euro. Talk about savings.

5. GONDOLA RIDE: The original price we negotiated for our ride was 100 euro. As we walked away to get wine, these two nice French girls asked if they could join us and split the cost. We were happy to take them up on it, and got to enjoy a great Venice tradition for 50% off.

4. CHINESE TOWER: This is one of the famous beer gardens in the English Gardens in Munich. For about 20 euro we got half a chicken, potato salad, a sandwich and two liters of beer. We also got to see a man with a sweet mullet, a really drunken bachelor party, and a cool oompa band.

3. SUGGESTIONS SANDWICH SHOP: Around the corner from our hotel in Rome, we found this cool cafe that had a display case of paninis and other assorted sandwiches that you could order to go. The total cost for the two of us, 5 euro. And they were delicious!

2. BABOO FLIGHT: Baboo is a low cost air carrier in Europe. We were thinking Sky Bus. You know, no frills. Boy were we wrong. Our in flight snack consisted of trays of hand passed hors d'oeuvers; cucumber slices topped with ranch sour cream, pitas filled with grilled vegetables, fruit skewers. It was like cock tail hour on the plane. And for only 100 euro per person. (the price we almost paid for our taxi ride to the flight.)

and the number one best value for the money....

1. MAN JUNK: For those of you who have been to a strip club, you know how much it costs to see a member of the opposite sex naked. It was our luck that we got to see the male specimen in all his glory for free. Priceless!

In order to keep these posts fairly short, I will post the other two top ten lists over the next couple of days. Stay tuned!

Chiao Italy

Tonight is our last in Italy. We have been here long enough that this morning, I successfully carried out an order for two espressos, paying and everything, entirely in Italian. I am very proud. Especially since on Tuesday I made an arse out of myself ordering pizza.

Here's the story. We were exhausted after touring the Roman ruins and had collapsed into the nearest pizza joint. I was trying to order, in Italian of course, pizza with prosciutto. I pronounced it like bruschetta on accident, and when the waited said it correctly, I actually said "no, pro-chett-o" He looked at me like, you're an idiot lady, and then I realized my mistake. I guess all those hours watching Giada De Laurentes cook on the food network did nothing for me when it came to actually ordering for myself.

The last night in Rome was great. We found this little pizza place tucked away in a corner and had really good pizza. Then we followed the tradition of tossing coins into the Trevi fountain to guarantee our return to Rome. We boarded to train to Venice without incident and enjoyed quite a nice ride. There was a ton of room, way more than a plane, and you got to watch the Italian countryside roll by.

Since being in Venice, we've done the typical Venice things. I was disappointed that because it is Saturday there were no glass blowing demonstrations on the island of Murano. Not even at the Glass Museum. We definitely wasted that €11. How can they consider charging that much to show you some old glass, and not even have the consideration of having a demonstration of how it's made. It turned out okay, since we got a lot of our souvenir shopping done on that island. The only person I haven't gotten anything for is my mom. I have no idea what to get her. She said she wanted some holy water from the Vatican, but they don't sell that. I considered buying one of the decorative bottles and filling it up with water from the fountains in St. Peter's square. That would be kind of like holy water. I'm sure there's a general blessing on the fountains in the Vatican. So mom, if you can think of anything you want, let me know.

One thing that I've noticed this time to Venice that I don't remember from my last trip is the difficulty of the transportation. It seems to be impossible to buy tickets for the water taxis and such. Not all the stops have them. They only take credit card on the automatic "24 hour" machines, but those are never working. We were able to purchase a 36 hour pass, but that leaves us about 8 hours short of getting ourselves to the airport. Oh well, I'm sure you don't want to hear about the frustrations of water taxis.

Today is the Festival of the Redeemer in Venice. This is basically an annual festival to celebrate when the island was finally free of the plague. A joyous occasion! The perk for us is they set off fireworks. So our plan for the evening is to get dinner by the Grand Canal, go for a gondola ride as long as it's not too much of a rip off and then head down to the part of the island where you can see the fireworks. Then tomorrow we're up early to catch our flight to Nice. If you want me to place any bets for you at the casino, let me know!