7.9.06 Sunday FRUIT NAZI
7.9.06 Sunday FRUIT NAZI
What a day!
this morning our alarms went off at 5 AM. yes folks that is AM! as we had to travel to rome via train. this time i let karen battle the ticket kiosk. she did a great job... as we had an excellent ride on the eurostar. comfy. and yes, i did nap. how could i not? it was like riding on a cloud. (and the fact that it was early had alot to do with it... trust me.)
you should have seen us shlepping our luggage through the train station and onto the train.... if i have learned anything about traveling abroad, that would be to pack light, light, light, light.
oh stop looking like you already knew that.... it's one thing to travel light for a week or so. try six weeks. what do you pack and what do you leave behind? and try to pack light when you are a MEDIA MAJOR. i have one word for you: EQUIPMENT. i have a whole bag just for camera stuff alone. so pppplllbbbbbttt to you all.
we got to the hotel in rome more tired than ever, but we had an agenda to cover. so after taking a tour of the building the hotel resides in (in plain english: we couldn't figure out the elevator and then we didn't know what floor the hotel was on. so we rode the elevator up and down until we found it.... ugh.) we settled into our room (an amazing palace compared to the cramped room back in florence. you should have seen me dance with joy when she told me we could make phone calls from our ROOM and there was in-house internet service.) and then headed out to tackle the colosseum. we are, after all, on a schedule.
the colosseum is a massive structure. just massive.
i took millions of pix as i now do not have a video camera anymore. charles the possessive would not let me borrow the school camera and my own has kicked the bucket (so to speak), it kinda bums me out. i was hoping to make a complete dvd of my trip of all the places i have visited here in italy. i do have good footage of the places i visited with the school, but i will have none of rome.
**sad face**
so we had fun at the colosseum. it's weird, but when we were out walking on the tiers looking into the basin of the colosseum, the sun BAKED us. hot hot hot. but when you turned around and walked back under the hall parts of the place, and were in the shade, it was like a full 8 -10 degrees cooler. and there was a breeze. sorta like natural air-conditioning. needless to say, these old ladies parked their butts in the halls alot. giggle.
i kept thinking of you gabz while walking around the place. wondering which parts you visited when you were here. i really enjoyed the texture of the place. the pitted stone and broken rock. tumble down stairwells and columns. way cool. what i did NOT like was the countless amounts of freaking PEOPLE there were. and i don't care what anyone says. most tourists are rude and inconsiderate. when i first got here i was somewhat polite when it came to crowds, but now, fugetaboudit. they don't see me, then i don't see them. i have whacked into about three dozen people today alone. it's beginning to grate on my nerves. and what is really wretched about this is that i am one of those people. i am a freaking TOURIST. the whole thought really depresses me.
sigh
i was really tired by the time we finished the colosseum... karen had a few other things on her agenda, but i just could not go on. i opted to go back to the room. i was hot, cranky and tired. it was on the walk home that i had my real first negative experience here. for the first time since i have been in italy, i have encountered a really nasty italian. and all i wanted was an orange.
i walked up to a fruit vendor close to the hotel and asked how much for an orange... one does not TOUCH the fruit in these stands. that is a very big no no. you point, ask, and if you want it, the vendor will put it in the bag. now i had been warned by charles the prophetic that sometimes vendors will pick your fruit for you and will try to slip you something that may be rotting. or of not good quality. well i'll be darned... this vendor did just that. i asked him how much, he tells me 1.50 euro (for ONE orange! that is like 2.04 in american currency!) picked up one of the oranges and it was black underneath. i so did not want that orange and said no, and pointed to the one i wanted. immediately the man put on a foul face. and very rudely tells me "TWO EURO". i was floored. this is where the crabby and impossible me kicked in. i went from zero to bitch in 2.3 seconds flat. i looked at him and put my hand up in his face (talk to the hand...) and said no thank you and walked away. i will not repeat what that man yelled at me. looking back, i regret being so nasty. i only sunk down to his level by behaving like that. but damn... it really felt good at the time.
so if there is one small bit of advice that i can give you if you ever travel to rome:
DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THE CART OF THE NASTY FRUIT-NAZI ON THE CORNER OF VIA NAZIONALE AND VIA FIRENZE.
turns out he was just as dreadful to karen a few hours after i encountered him. we are both tempted to go back out and tip his damn cart.
karen thinks rome is nicer than florence. i do agree that the streets are easier to walk on, wider, and the chance of getting run over is not as great. but i think florence is nicer only because it is smaller and more pristine. and maybe because i spent so much time there i got to know the place better. however, both towns are rather filthy (i feel bad saying this because i know i am prejudiced after living in a town with no litter or traffic. but hell, i live in the BOONDOCKS and still no one would go pee on a tree never mind public property). i guess i am really ready to go home. i am beginning to see more of the negative than the positive these days. i really wanted to rip off that fruit-nazi's face.
so now i go to bed without my orange.
grumble.
M3
What a day!
this morning our alarms went off at 5 AM. yes folks that is AM! as we had to travel to rome via train. this time i let karen battle the ticket kiosk. she did a great job... as we had an excellent ride on the eurostar. comfy. and yes, i did nap. how could i not? it was like riding on a cloud. (and the fact that it was early had alot to do with it... trust me.)
you should have seen us shlepping our luggage through the train station and onto the train.... if i have learned anything about traveling abroad, that would be to pack light, light, light, light.
oh stop looking like you already knew that.... it's one thing to travel light for a week or so. try six weeks. what do you pack and what do you leave behind? and try to pack light when you are a MEDIA MAJOR. i have one word for you: EQUIPMENT. i have a whole bag just for camera stuff alone. so pppplllbbbbbttt to you all.
we got to the hotel in rome more tired than ever, but we had an agenda to cover. so after taking a tour of the building the hotel resides in (in plain english: we couldn't figure out the elevator and then we didn't know what floor the hotel was on. so we rode the elevator up and down until we found it.... ugh.) we settled into our room (an amazing palace compared to the cramped room back in florence. you should have seen me dance with joy when she told me we could make phone calls from our ROOM and there was in-house internet service.) and then headed out to tackle the colosseum. we are, after all, on a schedule.
the colosseum is a massive structure. just massive.
i took millions of pix as i now do not have a video camera anymore. charles the possessive would not let me borrow the school camera and my own has kicked the bucket (so to speak), it kinda bums me out. i was hoping to make a complete dvd of my trip of all the places i have visited here in italy. i do have good footage of the places i visited with the school, but i will have none of rome.
**sad face**
so we had fun at the colosseum. it's weird, but when we were out walking on the tiers looking into the basin of the colosseum, the sun BAKED us. hot hot hot. but when you turned around and walked back under the hall parts of the place, and were in the shade, it was like a full 8 -10 degrees cooler. and there was a breeze. sorta like natural air-conditioning. needless to say, these old ladies parked their butts in the halls alot. giggle.
i kept thinking of you gabz while walking around the place. wondering which parts you visited when you were here. i really enjoyed the texture of the place. the pitted stone and broken rock. tumble down stairwells and columns. way cool. what i did NOT like was the countless amounts of freaking PEOPLE there were. and i don't care what anyone says. most tourists are rude and inconsiderate. when i first got here i was somewhat polite when it came to crowds, but now, fugetaboudit. they don't see me, then i don't see them. i have whacked into about three dozen people today alone. it's beginning to grate on my nerves. and what is really wretched about this is that i am one of those people. i am a freaking TOURIST. the whole thought really depresses me.
sigh
i was really tired by the time we finished the colosseum... karen had a few other things on her agenda, but i just could not go on. i opted to go back to the room. i was hot, cranky and tired. it was on the walk home that i had my real first negative experience here. for the first time since i have been in italy, i have encountered a really nasty italian. and all i wanted was an orange.
i walked up to a fruit vendor close to the hotel and asked how much for an orange... one does not TOUCH the fruit in these stands. that is a very big no no. you point, ask, and if you want it, the vendor will put it in the bag. now i had been warned by charles the prophetic that sometimes vendors will pick your fruit for you and will try to slip you something that may be rotting. or of not good quality. well i'll be darned... this vendor did just that. i asked him how much, he tells me 1.50 euro (for ONE orange! that is like 2.04 in american currency!) picked up one of the oranges and it was black underneath. i so did not want that orange and said no, and pointed to the one i wanted. immediately the man put on a foul face. and very rudely tells me "TWO EURO". i was floored. this is where the crabby and impossible me kicked in. i went from zero to bitch in 2.3 seconds flat. i looked at him and put my hand up in his face (talk to the hand...) and said no thank you and walked away. i will not repeat what that man yelled at me. looking back, i regret being so nasty. i only sunk down to his level by behaving like that. but damn... it really felt good at the time.
so if there is one small bit of advice that i can give you if you ever travel to rome:
DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THE CART OF THE NASTY FRUIT-NAZI ON THE CORNER OF VIA NAZIONALE AND VIA FIRENZE.
turns out he was just as dreadful to karen a few hours after i encountered him. we are both tempted to go back out and tip his damn cart.
karen thinks rome is nicer than florence. i do agree that the streets are easier to walk on, wider, and the chance of getting run over is not as great. but i think florence is nicer only because it is smaller and more pristine. and maybe because i spent so much time there i got to know the place better. however, both towns are rather filthy (i feel bad saying this because i know i am prejudiced after living in a town with no litter or traffic. but hell, i live in the BOONDOCKS and still no one would go pee on a tree never mind public property). i guess i am really ready to go home. i am beginning to see more of the negative than the positive these days. i really wanted to rip off that fruit-nazi's face.
so now i go to bed without my orange.
grumble.
M3