Ok, ok, more detail...
When we finally got to Barcelona, we found an awesome hostel, it had free internet, we got our own private room, and it had a kitchen (saving us tons on $$$). We stayed for three nights and enjoyed the heck out of ourselves. The first night, we just walked around the city, checked out the Las Ramblas where there are many performers looking for tips. Awesome statues, standing still until they get a few euros, then they move like robots. Except for two demons that JJ fed some money to, they both jumped and shouted and scared the crap out of us! Later that night we went to an amazing jazz club. Two spaniards who played and sung beautifully, changed the music we knew (marley, u2, sting) into wonderful folksy, jazz. It was really awesome. Sitting there, sipping wine and enjoying a cigarette was really like a different world....
The next day, we went to see the Picasso Museum. Amazing, amazing stuff. Just so crazy to see works done by him when he was only 15 years old!!! You really get a sense of his emergence into cubism when looking at everything together down a time line like that.
After that, we saw Parc Guell. So amazing!!! It's a public park set up by Guell, who comissioned the artist Gaudi to design it. His work is so wonderful and SO much attention to detail!! Everything in the park had such a unique twist to everything. As one of our books says, it really is a place that Dr Seuss would feel comfortable in. Then we went to see the La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's unfinished cathedral from over 100 years ago. The most beautiful and elaborate construction sight I have ever visited.
We got out of Barcelona and traveled for a very long time to Ventimiglia, a tiny freakin town in Italy that only had 3 hotels that were very pricy. As we got there very late at night and were waiting for a very early train, we decided to trek the streets for a while, we played rummy by the beach, and went back to the train station to sleep/wait for the next train. Very interesting being homeless for a night. Very cold too!!! When we finally got our 4:42 train out of there, it was the nicest, warmest, oh-the-best feeling in the world to sit down on a cushiony sleeper car and pass out. The hard part was staying awake for our next stop before yet another transfer to where we needed to go. We finally got to La Spezia where we could start our stay in Cinque Terre. We were thinking of staying only one night, but as it took us most of the day to just find an open hostel, we stayed two nights. Which turned out to be awesome!! Cinque Terre is beautiful, and I am so glad we saw it when no one else was there. It was much more like the 5 fishing cities it was supposed to be than the imagined crowded streets, restaurants, hotels, and trails of tourist season.... We took one of the short hikes the first day and the other hikes the next day. There are five fishing cities, that you can hike the coastal cliffs to each town. The towns were beautiful in themselves with rainbow colored housing and green shutters, but being in an alcove along the cliff of the coast of the mediterranean was breathtaking! Very weird to think that what we saw can only be seen by taking that huge hike up and down the coast, or by taking a boat into the sea.... Even though we have all this amazing rain gear, we didn't bring it on our hike, and ended up getting drenched with some coastal rain during the last 45 minutes of our hike. Really though, one of the best parts of the journey. And my awesome prana pants dried on 30 minute train ride back in town. Very impressed with them.... I wish we had more time there, but honestly, without the hikes, we would have been very bored. Not very many restaurants open during this time of year. Again our hostel had a kitchem, so JJ and I saved a ton of money cooking for ourselves. In Italy, you can buy pesto by the pound!!! I am loving it and all the food. Such good food. My journal mostly revolves around it!
Now we are in Rome.
This city is huge and very touristed. Much, much different than the deserted Cinque Terre. Today we tried to see the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel; just as we were getting to the Hall of Maps, someone let us know that there were five minutes left for the chapel, we rushed to it only to be greeted by guards saying, ok, let's go, closing time, everyone out.... The saddest thing in the world. They are only open for 3 hours during these months, completely ridiculous, but we'll suck it up and pay the 8 euro to get in again tomorrow. It's just not enough to see the Sistine Chapel in five seconds....
Well I hope that is enough detail for you detail-starved people. JJ is definitely the writer and I do this more for efficiency, but I really will try harder now.
I hope everyone is having an awesome time in the states. It feels like ages since we've last touched that soil. And I can't even imagine the snow and cold there. Even though it is still really chillly here at night....
Love to all!!
Ems
The next day, we went to see the Picasso Museum. Amazing, amazing stuff. Just so crazy to see works done by him when he was only 15 years old!!! You really get a sense of his emergence into cubism when looking at everything together down a time line like that.
After that, we saw Parc Guell. So amazing!!! It's a public park set up by Guell, who comissioned the artist Gaudi to design it. His work is so wonderful and SO much attention to detail!! Everything in the park had such a unique twist to everything. As one of our books says, it really is a place that Dr Seuss would feel comfortable in. Then we went to see the La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's unfinished cathedral from over 100 years ago. The most beautiful and elaborate construction sight I have ever visited.
We got out of Barcelona and traveled for a very long time to Ventimiglia, a tiny freakin town in Italy that only had 3 hotels that were very pricy. As we got there very late at night and were waiting for a very early train, we decided to trek the streets for a while, we played rummy by the beach, and went back to the train station to sleep/wait for the next train. Very interesting being homeless for a night. Very cold too!!! When we finally got our 4:42 train out of there, it was the nicest, warmest, oh-the-best feeling in the world to sit down on a cushiony sleeper car and pass out. The hard part was staying awake for our next stop before yet another transfer to where we needed to go. We finally got to La Spezia where we could start our stay in Cinque Terre. We were thinking of staying only one night, but as it took us most of the day to just find an open hostel, we stayed two nights. Which turned out to be awesome!! Cinque Terre is beautiful, and I am so glad we saw it when no one else was there. It was much more like the 5 fishing cities it was supposed to be than the imagined crowded streets, restaurants, hotels, and trails of tourist season.... We took one of the short hikes the first day and the other hikes the next day. There are five fishing cities, that you can hike the coastal cliffs to each town. The towns were beautiful in themselves with rainbow colored housing and green shutters, but being in an alcove along the cliff of the coast of the mediterranean was breathtaking! Very weird to think that what we saw can only be seen by taking that huge hike up and down the coast, or by taking a boat into the sea.... Even though we have all this amazing rain gear, we didn't bring it on our hike, and ended up getting drenched with some coastal rain during the last 45 minutes of our hike. Really though, one of the best parts of the journey. And my awesome prana pants dried on 30 minute train ride back in town. Very impressed with them.... I wish we had more time there, but honestly, without the hikes, we would have been very bored. Not very many restaurants open during this time of year. Again our hostel had a kitchem, so JJ and I saved a ton of money cooking for ourselves. In Italy, you can buy pesto by the pound!!! I am loving it and all the food. Such good food. My journal mostly revolves around it!
Now we are in Rome.
This city is huge and very touristed. Much, much different than the deserted Cinque Terre. Today we tried to see the Vatican Museum and the Sistine Chapel; just as we were getting to the Hall of Maps, someone let us know that there were five minutes left for the chapel, we rushed to it only to be greeted by guards saying, ok, let's go, closing time, everyone out.... The saddest thing in the world. They are only open for 3 hours during these months, completely ridiculous, but we'll suck it up and pay the 8 euro to get in again tomorrow. It's just not enough to see the Sistine Chapel in five seconds....
Well I hope that is enough detail for you detail-starved people. JJ is definitely the writer and I do this more for efficiency, but I really will try harder now.
I hope everyone is having an awesome time in the states. It feels like ages since we've last touched that soil. And I can't even imagine the snow and cold there. Even though it is still really chillly here at night....
Love to all!!
Ems