When in Rome.... do as the (most obvious title ever) Romans do

Oh Roma...... what a hectic start to this city!

Our flight arrived around 8pm and we had no place to stay when we got in. We were hoping for a couchsurfer to host us, but got no luck. A quick euro into the computer (yes 1 computer) at the tiny airport and we had 5 minutes to check our email and book a hostel. This 1 computer was very slow, and we had just enough time to write down directions to an available hostel hoping that they had room for us that evening. Luckily they did.. but only for 2 nights - we would have to adjust our plans a little... but it worked out in the end!

We grabbed a map and planned on getting up early the next morning to venture out into the city like only Apes 'n Ju know how - walk around til you see something interesting, check if it's free to get in, if not, snap some photos of the outside and move along.... but then again, there are free things too...

Apes at the Forum wishing it was free

Ju and a really large statue just hangin' out and Apes at the Pantheon

I would just like to point out the fact that April and I walked everywhere... except from the hostel to the main downtown area. That means, we spent, on average 7-10 hours a day walking... in sandals. We are champions!!

So when we were near the Colosseum (first thing in the morning), I sat down for a second in my white shorts... and then stood up only to realize that I had sat in bird turd. GREAT! Now here I was in Rome with bird doo doo on my bum - what to do? I had to be "supercool", yes I say that in quotes.... and tie my sweater around my waist. So not only was I a tourist in Rome, I was a cool tourist too. YAH! Jealous?

Cool tourist Ju with her awesome sweater tied around her waist

Moving along... so we saw this big pit construction-looking thing and a man leading a tourist group through it... other than the tourist group there was no one else there (well, some little Asian man trying to sell sunglasses, but that's beside the point). We thought "What a joke! This man is leading this group through nothing!". We took a photo of them for fun and proceeded along the way, later realizing that this giant "waste of space" in our eyes was actually Circus Maximus. OOPS!! Our bad. As you may now realize, Apes 'n Ju aren't the brightest tools in the shed! To our credit though, "The site is now a public park and retains little evidence of its former use". Thank you Wikipedia.

The tourist group at Circus Maximus

As the day progressed, we started to get hungry! Mmm food... we found a small grocery store off of the main strip and bought delicious cheese, apples, yogurt, and red bull - a feast fit for a queen... or two cheap backpackers. We then decided that we were going to find a lovely spot outside to eat it all! We wandered around looking for where the best place would be, and stumbled across a crapload (refer to the definition of a crapload in April's previous post) of people... "So THESE are the Spanish Steps!" hahahaha. What a perfect place to dine! Apes 'n I hiked up close to the top, plopped ourselves down on the steps and began to feast on our exquisite lunch. Ten minutes in, an angry security guard approached us and says "NO MANGIARE! NO EAT!"... boo! So we packed our things and moved up further... to discover that there is an amazing panorama of the city! What an even better place to eat! So that we did.

The Spanish Steps AND a crapload of people

While wrapping up our meal and enjoying the breathtaking view, a small entourage came near and needed us to move over a bit. No problemo!! It was a photo shoot hahahaha - with a male model! Zoolander would have a hey day! :) Look for this ad in upcoming fall magazines:

It's hard to be that ridiculously good-looking

To steer clear of the craploads of people (which we tend to not enjoy), we discovered the Borghese park - so beautiful and so massive!! I think we spent at least 2 hours in there and still didn't see it all. And when we wanted to leave, we kinda got lost - but that's just what happens when you're Apes 'n Ju!

Off to the Trevi Fountain!! In a small sqaure in Rome there is a giant fountain - literally taking up half of the square - and guess what takes up the other half!? You've got it -PEOPLE! People from all over the world!! But we wanted to get right down to the water so we could toss a coin in - out came the French in us as we pushed a shoved our way to the front! YAY! We each tossed a coin in, snapped some photos, and left the crowd just as viciously as we'd entered it!

Tossin' a coin in the Trevi Fountain for good luck!

We thought we'd seen enough for the day, so we made our way back to hostel, bought some groceries and proceeded to have some wine and cook risotto in the microwave (no flames allowed). It turned out amazing and the hostel-goers were impressed. We spent some time chatting with a nice guy from California and fun chap from England! April also had a reunion with one of the girls that was at the same hostel as her in Porto - small world indeed!!

Fabulous Rome - an early morning meant off to bed so we could head to the Vatican the next day!

Venezia aka Venice, Italy!

On a cold and cloudy Monday two girls take a train from Milan to Venice. After getting rid of their luggage and tricking the men into thinking that they only have 1 backpack instead of two, and purchasing a city map (2.50 euros = tourist rip off) they head out of the Train Station to discover the Grand Canal and a crapload of people. And by crapload, I mean THOUSANDS, most of which are gray-haired and following people carrying flowers, i.e. tourist groups. Deciding that the plan of attack should be to get away from the "tourists" as fast as possible, they head for a bridge, but not before getting distracted by a Patisserie. Bread stuffed with green olives and cheese? Count these girls in! 7.50 euros later (1.80 euro per 100g...tricky Italians), they're over a bridge and taking lots of pictures.

Then it happens, the rain kicks in and lots of it. Being that the city is AT sea level, more water poses a problem to this small city. Oh well, these girls aren't made of sugar and won't melt (after all they haven't had an umbrella or rain coat in the 6 months they've lived in Europe, why start now?). They continue on their unconventional tour of the city. Heading in the direction of Piazza San Marco via the Rialto Bridge, they finally cave and purchase a 5 euro umbrella. After all, what fun is it to be soaking wet and miserable in the City of Water?

List of "to sees" in Venice:

• Piazza San Marco - check
• Doge's Palace - check
• Bascilica San Marco - check (the girls will actually go inside at a later time thanks to the LONG lines)
• Campanile di San Marco - check
• Biblioteca Marciana - check
• Grand Canal - check again, oh but this time it's starting to flood the shore and all the gondolas are tied up!
• Bridge of Sighs- check and covered with a GIANT advertising campaign for Chopard watches.

The girls continue to wander for a few hours before deciding that it's best to go sit in a coffee shop and dry off a little, while mapping out where they still need to go in the city. Oh, and one of them needs to go to the bathroom really badly (*cough* Julie *cough* Didn't you're mother ever teach you to go BEFORE you leave the house? LOL).

After a good break, they're off again. Is this the best idea? Probably not considering the wind has picked up considerably and they're walking along the shore. This is the part of the story where I'm sad to report that the 5 euro umbrella starts to break and the girls are driven into hysterical laughter while people walk by and stare.

They can't let this little setback deter their plans however, so off they go to see some churches (there are some 97 odd churches in Venice, you ain't getting the names of the ones we saw, cause even we don't know them!). Before long, these two girls find themselves back in Piazza San Marco, and one of them gets the bright idea that the other should feed a pigeon while she takes a picture. Après, they head into the Basilica, but don't stay long thanks to the hundreds of people who never seemed to learn that it's not nice to push.

Off and running again, they head in the direction opposite of all the tourists and proceed to get lost in "suburban" Venice (or just the part where people actually live and tourists don't venture). Oh well it's an experience, and once they find themselves back on the main streets, they hit up a Gelateria as a treat!

To the train station they go, and into the tiny town of Preganziol, where they will be staying for the night. This town has one restaurant that is open, and despite being a little more fancy than what they are dressed for (being as they are soaking wet and have been wearing almost the same clothes for 4 days now), they eat pizza and pasta there anyways. They stay with a nice girl named Lucia, who's a little "off", but still lots of fun.

Day two for these girls is pretty chill (because they've seen most of what they came to see) and thanks to the rain finally stopping, they are able to throw out the broken umbrella and see some Gondola rides in progress. They also head to Murano on a waterbus to see where all the Murano glass is made (i.e. those too expensive to use glass blowing pieces). This trip costs them 13 euros each thanks to the expensive waterbus tickets that no one checked. At lunch time, they eat crackers, cheese, salami, and fruit that they bought at the grocery store and they feed a mangy cat and pigeon that seem to be unlikely friends.

Sadly 3:00pm rolls around and the girls must head out of the city to catch a flight. This is easier said than done, as they miss their stop on the train and arrive at the airport 15 minutes before their flight is scheduled to board. This isn't a problem however, as these girls are experienced travelers and they catch their flight to Rome with time to spare.

The end.

On and on and on.... we are now in Milan

CHOO CHOO!!

Off on another adventure - and this one's by train!
CHOO CHOO!

April and I arrived in Milan on Friday, April 24, 2009 around 1pm... with plenty of time to kill before we are to meet up with our couchsurfing host, Matt. So, out and about we went... to stroll the streets of Milan without a clue (as per usual).

Knowing very well that Milan itself is not a very popular tourist destination, we weren't really expecting much. April had written down a few sights to see, but our goals for the visit were a little different. We wandered with our packs for about 3 hours... from visiting the Duomo church, to the Giardini Pubblica - we saw it all haha. No, literally that was all we saw! On the way into the park, we passed through this castle-ish thing, and inside the moat we saw a cat. This was cat the first of our journey - with many more to come. It turned out that cats are NOT good luck.

Duomo church on the left, the evil cat that started it all on the right

Inside the garden (giardini), there were numerous Italian couples.... we're in Italy, so I can let you imagine what we saw going on. We had a lovely stroll and used the immaculate toilet facilities that were provided - don't forget to bring your own TP! :)

Classiest toilets in all of Milan - hey, at least we didn't have to pay for them!

By the time we had seen it all, it was about 5:30/6pm and we had to head out to meet Matt. Matt lives in a small suburb of Milan - about 7km from the city's centre - on a dairy farm! We hopped on the metro and then on the bus - ready for Matt to greet us at a gas station. Expecting some dude in a car to show up, we are kinda creeped out by this guy that says hi to us on a bicycle... turns out, that's HIM! Hahaha - oops! Only now realizing that the farm is right behind the gas station, we stroll the 5 mins to his apartment.

We got a tour of the dairy farm - chickens, chicks, a pony, a donkey, cows, calves, an angry bull, and a 3-legged dog later, we are back inside cooking dinner and preparing for our adventurous Saturday.

Apes 'n Ju with baby cows!

One big problem arose - turns out that April 25 is a national holiday and pretty much everything is closed down.. along with limited public transit. After some quick deciphering, we find that the best thing to do is to walk to the nearest train station (6km away) to catch our train to Cossato - where we need to be by noon so we could make our appointment at 1pm. So Apes 'n I head out at 8am on our 1.5hr hike to a small town called Rho. Once we got there, however, we had no clue where the station was! After a little jogging and talking to the locals we finally made it with barely any time to spare.

Cossato

We arrived around 10:30am - just enough time to head to the grocery store, get some food for lunch and then march the 10km to where we needed to be. Luckily the grocery store was open (for the morning anyway), so we purchased enough food for lunch and dinner that day. So, like I said, we were going to walk 10km to get to our appointment, but after talking with a clerk at the store, we realized where we needed to be was actually 25km away - yah, we're not hiking that thanks! By now, it was 11:30 - so we ate our lunch til around noon and decided that we would call a cab. Just to reiterate: the town of Cossato is very small.... it's a Saturday...AND it's a national holiday... you do the math. Needless to say, it was quite a feat... 1. Trying to reach a cab company on the phone. 2. Trying to speak Italian (when you don't know the language) to a cab company on the phone 3. Trying to get another Italian-speaking person to speak to a cab company on the phone.

April unimpressed by our 4 hour hiatus in Cossato

By now it's 1pm, our appointment time has passed and we have no cab. We call our "appointment" and after another hour of calling back and forth, they tell us that a cab is on the way. 30 minutes pass and a kind sir shows up and takes us where we needed to be - 50€ later that is. Boo.

We ended up waiting about another 2 hours before it was our turn to go... to go where you may ask? Well, see for yourself:

All that hassle just for that!! Hahaha... what an experience though! Phew! April claims that mine was more of a fall than a jump, but I beg to differ... the photos prove that it was the other way around.

Jump or fall? Okay, I think we both fell.... let's check out the video replay

We luckily made it back in time to catch the next train to Milan at 7:15pm, and ate our glorious sandwiches on the train. Getting back to Matt's place turned to be a difficult task since the bus we needed changes stops depending on the day.. and well, we ended up at the wrong one (obviously) based on instructions from our host. Thankfully we had our cell phone and Matt had the Internet.... and well, we got home.... eventually, and basically went to bed to gear up for a football-filled Sunday.

Sunday... if the name of this day couldn't be more opposite....

You've all heard that David Beckham was on loan to AC Milan for the remainder of the season right? SO DID WE.... and who so happened to be playing on Sunday? You guesssed it!! Our mission for Sunday - AC Milan vs. Palermo football game at San Siro Stadium! Woot woot. Too bad it poured rain literally ALL DAY. Blegh. The walk to the game (an hour) was a cold and wet one indeed, but we made it!! Now if only Eurpeans knew how to queue properly... then there wouldn't have been such a disgusting mob at the ticket counter full of cigarette-toting, beer-drinking fans. Boo!

San Siro Stadium in Milan, Italy - oh and David Beckham's bottom!

AC Milan ended up winning the match 3-0... and we ended up getting our glance at Becks - yes Amber, you are jealous.

After the match, Apes 'n I headed down to the canal area for some dinner... and YES it was still raining. The restaurant that looked appealing did not take credit cards, so it was our mission to find an ATM. It only took 45 minutes - that's quick in European time haha - ya right! Back to dinner - it was a lovely meal, with lovely wine, and lovely homemade gnocco fritto - not gnocchi, gnocco. Look it up!

Gnocco Fritto!

Encountering yet ANOTHER bus problem - the 10pm bus never showed up!! AH! We had to wait an hour at the bus station for the next one! Finally one shows up, we wait around a bit.. watch a gang come on the bus and try to start a fight with this guy in a pink shirt....bus driver finally notices and kicks them off... and ahhhhh we're headed back to the farm for a good night's sleep before heading off to Venice the next day! No big deal.

I hope you still don't think I'm unemployed...

So for those of you whom I haven't talked to in a long while, I am going to give you a brief update of my job situation.

January - I began a 6 week contract with a marketing/lead generation company where I was working 35 hours a week from home - making calls to the US and Europe, trying to arrange meetings. Not the best job in the world, but I earned a good chunk of change. Still working my 6 week contract, I ventured out and applied for another position where I would work from home again - this time, being a website administrator adding local events and activities to a family-based website (working when I want and for how long I want - not too shabby).

Mid-February - contract ends and I am left with my 1 part time position. This works out well since we are headed off on a 2 week trip. I will find a job when I get back.

March - Back in action and on the search for a new job. Still living off what I made from my previous position, I am set for a little while longer. End of the month rolls around and I e-mail a woman at the Inspection Académique and ask if there are any English teaching positions available. Luckily, there were!

April - Go in for my interview (which was more of a test.... to test my ENGLISH). Needless to say, I passed and get a call the next day to see if I can start on Monday.

So there you go folks... I am now an English teacher - teaching children from the ages of 6-12 years, while still maintaining my second job working for the family web site.

Did I mention that I get Wednesdays off AND get paid for holidays? And ummm well France has a lot of holidays: April 20-May 1, May 8, May 21, June 1. I've had some free time.

Pixie Reunion

So our little friend Pixie (remember her from Christmas?) came to visit us again for a week while her family went to England. In exchange for us babysitting, we got a sweet little convertible for the week. YEAH having a car again, boo that this city was NOT meant for cars. Trying to find parking here is like trying to win the lottery! Frequently Julie had to get up as I was leaving for work to move the car out of the no parking zone were we left it the night before. Why did Julie have to do this if April was already up you ask? Did I happen to mention that thanks to the lovely MTO my license expired on my birthday (after only 2 years)? So April was not driving anywhere, oh except for that one time up in the mountains at 10:00pm....hey we had a convertible, you would have done it too!

Julie & April Driving

Traffic at 3:30pm on a Friday!

Having a car meant we got to go to Monaco via the middle road and the high road, both of which are winding, at the edge of a cliff, and have speed limits of 90 km/h! hahahah Vive la France! We also hit up the French coast on the way to St. Tropez, and went to San Remo & Dolce Acqua, Italy with a friend of Julie's from back home. The weather was not quite warm at this point (it was just the beginning of April after all), but that didn't stop us from driving with the top down at all times. I might have acquired a cold.

K, so it was a little warm this day!

Oh and Pixie knew who we were and where she was this time, which meant we didn't need the leash, which of course avoided a lot of headaches- for Pixie that is.

In France, you never know where you are

- just where you aren't!

How's that for a view?

Hey Amber, thanks for the car! Can we borrow it again for our Euro trip? You, Loulou, Sophie, and Pixie can come too! 5 1/2's company right?

24's better than 23!

So I had a birthday and despite my protests, turned 24!
(apparently it HAS to work this way!)

My lovely family made sure I was well taken care in the present department.


And to celebrate the day, I worked and then a group of us hit up La Voglia for a little Italian birthday dinner.

This is what it looked like:

Julie and I heading out for the evening.

Getting some money!






Birthday Celebration Attendants!
(Ryan, Julie, Me, Katie, Seabass)

Props to Ryan for finishing that entire pasta dish on his own!

Thanks to everyone for a great night!

Pork and Cheese

Finally, here I go with a post about our lovely voyage to Portugal....

Portugal was added to the list of places to travel to, because well, it's Portugal, it's amazing, I'm Portuguese, AND my cousin was getting married so my entire family would be coming over from Canada - YAY FOR REUNIONS!

We arrived in Porto, Portugal (in the north for those of you who don't know) Thursday evening and we were picked up by my sister Nicki and my cousin Luisa! HIIIIIII!!! Out for dinner (10pm style in Portugal - they eat late), and were overcome with what we ordered. The name of the dish/sandwich thing is called a Francesinha. OMG. This photo speaks for itself:

Francesinha (meaning Little French Girl in Portuguese) is a Portuguese sandwich originally from Porto, made with bread, wet-cured ham, linguiça, fresh sausage like chipolata, steak or roast meat and covered with molten cheese and a hot thick tomato and beer sauce

So anyway, moving on from the crazy meat-filled sandwich... we spent the next day touring around the city of Braga where my uncle and aunt live, realizing that Portuguese men are by far the worst cat-callers in all of Europe (that we encountered thus far). The three of us were standing on a street corner waiting for the light to change and a car was driving past us... the man driving looked over at us, called out something and then pressed his horn. If only a blog could portray what his horn sounded like... but let me try anyway. It began with a horse neighing, followed by one of those "hey good-lookin'" whistles. Some people! We were also referred to as supermodels, and had many a man hiss our way. My heritage :) Hahaha.

Aside from the cat-calling, the town was really different from anything we'd seen so far on our trip. The ceramic tile mosaics on all the buildings were really cool, and the hospital looked awesome! See below:

Who would have thought that a hospital could look so cool!?

Moving along... the day ended with Apes and Steph heading to Porto for the rest of their stay while I stayed with my family for the wedding the next day. YIPEE!

The wedding was gorgeous, let me just say, in an old church in Porto, then followed by the reception at a Port Wine vineyard - so pretty! Welcomed with a glass of port wine, we were then fed from 4pm until the wee hours of the morning. Once 3:30am came around, I was ready to call it a night, and out comes another feast - caldo verde soup and entire BBQ buffet - WHAT!? I guess they sure know how to do it in Portugal! :)

Port wine storage - our entrance to the reception


Little Joao (cutest kid ever)


Inside at the reception

The next day was calm and relaxing - just spending some nice time with my family and feasting on the leftovers from the wedding. What was originally going to be a small luncheon, turned out to be a feast with 17 of us! Amazing though!

On Monday, my immediate family plus Abe, and my aunt and uncle, all piled into two cars and drove up into the mountains to Parafita - the village (more like the hamlet) where my father was born and raised. How amazing was this!? It was almost like stepping back in time to a quiet old village where animals (cows, chickens, etc.) were free to roam the cobblestone streets - trust me, there were some cow patties along the way hahaha. I got to see the house where my dad grew up (which is now a getaway place for my aunt and uncle's family - cottagesque).

The house my dad grew up in (Parafita, Portugal)


The streets of the village - can you see the cow poop?


My family with the gorgeous view from the house

For the afternoon, we were invited over to my dad's cousin's house (in the village 5 min up the road known as Friaes). What an experience this was!! Remember how I was mentioning stepping back in time before? This time it was more unreal! We walked into the kitchen/dining room which was not accessible from the main house, but in a separate section to itself. In the open fireplace (yes, open in the middle of the kitchen), there were 3 cauldrons cooking in the flame! So cool! Lunch wasn't going to be ready for a little bit, so my sister and my mom went exploring in the village - watch out for the poop! Chickens and cats were all over place hahaha. Roosters having a crowing competition, you know, typical village stuff.

I told you the fire was open in the kitchen

Some more people arrived for this incredible feast and the food was ready to be served. Let me just mention now that EVERYTHING that was served was homemade/homegrown - including the chicken, goat, pork, etc. This meal was ludicrously filling - homemade chicken soup, bread, wine, potatoes, goat, chicken, chorizo, sausages, rapini, AND the amazing desserts (yes, plural). I could not believe how much food this woman had made! She truly is a wonder chef!

From L to R: The 3 sistas with the Wonder Chef, Maria!

After the meal, it was time to explore some more. We had heard some baa-ing and realized that they had baby goats living in a little room under the kitchen. So when Maria came out to feed them, we were so excited and out came the camera. The exact same thing occurred when we discovered that they had lambs too!! Best experience ever!

Maria had a little lamb


And a little goat!

After this exquisite feast, we said our goodbyes and piled back in the cars to head back to Braga for the night. We all had a calm relaxing evening trying to digest the food we consumed that day, and I got ready to head to the airport the next morning.

Mom had brought me an entire case of PC white cheddar macaroni and cheese to bring back to France, but I had no room in my luggage! I ended up taking the powder back with me and leaving the boxes of noodles! And I also got a lovely homemade chorizo to bring back too :) SO GOOD! I can't wait to visit again :)