Slovenia

At the end of September, I got to go with the school on a trip to Ljubljana, Slovenia.  We did a weekend bus trip there with a group of students, and it was great! I loved Ljubljana, and would definitely consider moving there, if they ever needed student affairs personnel.

A square in downtown Ljubljana

We stayed in a really nice hotel, close to the center of town, and because we were the staff for the group, our rooms had balconies, which was awesome! We arrived pretty late on Thursday evening, so we checked everyone in, and then called it a night.

View of Ljubljana from the Castle

Friday morning we did a walking tour of Ljubljana, which is the capital of Slovenia. Our guide was lovely and knowledgeable, and we walked all through the town, ending up at a castle on a hill. The major made the decision to make the center of town pedestrian only, which really makes it seem open and accessible. I met up with Shelley and Linda after the tour (we had separated into different groups with the students), and we had a little light lunch and then wandered around the center some more.

In the afternoon we met up with some students who chose to participate in the optional tour to the City Museum of Ljubljana. It takes you through the complete history of Slovenia and Ljubljana, and it was really interesting. Especially the last century or so. During World War II, the republic of Lljubljana was under Italian rule and they literally put up a barbed wire fence surrounding the entire city and cutting it off from everything else. Pieces of that fence are on display in the museum.

Tiny car that used to have a huge waitlist during the Communist Era.

Inside the tiny car!

After the tour, I did some shopping, as there were bookstores and pharmacy/drug store places that had things I can't get in Italy. That night Shelley, Linda, and I went to this amazing restaurant that they had found on a previous trip to Ljubljana. We all had this incredible dish with a honey truffle sauce that was just spectacular. Mmmm. My mouth is watering right now just remembering it.

The pletna boats on their way to the island of Bled

On Saturday we did a day trip to Bled, which is a much smaller town in the north of Slovenia. We started the day with a boat trip to the island of Bled, on these special boats called Pletnas. We were rowed over to the island, which has a church at the top of a steep flight of stairs. We all got a chance to ring the church bells, which was fun!

The Bell Tower

We then did a hike through Vintgar Gorge, which was beautiful. And following that we had lunch in Bled before getting back on the bus to head back to Ljubljana. It was really nice to be able to spend a day outside of a city, surrounded by green.

That night Shelley, Linda, and I tried a new restaurant, and the food was as good, if not better, than the night before!! We all tried different things, and no one was disappointed. However, the service was not that great. Our waiter was really strange. I think he was trying to be funny/charming because we were three ladies, but it did not come across that way at all, and was instead patronizing and irritating. Pity.

Sunday morning we stopped to tour the Postojna Caves, which were HUGE and incredible. We took a mining cart-type train quite far down, and then walked around for about an hour, and we only saw a tiny part of the caves. It was awesome!! Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed.

Slovenia was a really awesome trip, all in all. I would most likely never have gone there on my own, and I am so, so happy that I got to go through the school. Man, I love my job :)

Tiff Visits!

I came back from my awesome adventures in Egypt and England to have an awesome adventure with my friend Tiffany coming to visit!!!

We had an absolutely fantastic time - it was so nice to see Tiff after so long, and it was nice to explore some parts of Italy with her. It gets disgustingly hot in Italy in August, so we were pretty much sweaty messes all week. But, that means that we had a brilliant excuse for lots and lots of gelato! I'm pretty sure we had gelato at least once a day.

View of Florence from Piazzale Michelangelo

We did lots of walking around Florence, seeing the main sights, including walking up to Piazzale Michelangelo to get this beautiful view of Florence. We also said "hello" to David in the Galleria Accademia. We stopped by the leather markets so that Tiff could pick up souvenirs. And we ate lots of good food! We went to some of my favorite restaurants, and also cooked at home.

We did three day trips while she was here. The first was to the Cinque Terre, which is on the east coast of Italy. This was my second trip there, and this time we went into the water. It was my first time into the Mediterranean of off Italy's coast, and it was lovely!  We had a delicious lunch right on the coast of Monterosso and then hopped on a train to visit two of the other four cities. We had gelato in Vernazza and then glasses of wine in a coastal bar in Riomaggiore. It was a really nice day.

In Lucca

Our second day trip was to visit the towns of Lucca and Pisa. Lucca is a small town that is a living testimony to past times. It has well preserved medieval architecture, and broad, high walls that used to be used for defense and now are a lovely place to walk, cycle or picnic! This was my first visit to Lucca and it was so lovely! The walls are incredible - really thick and wide - we walked all the way around them. We had lunch at a lovely little wine bar that we just stumbled upon, but would definitely revisit. We left Lucca and make a quick stop in Pisa. Literally just long enough to see the Torre Pendente (Leaning Tower) and the Piazza dei Miracoli. It is crazy to me how much it actually leans, especially when you learn that it was fixed (to some extent) fairly recently. This was a lovely, peaceful day trip. 

Our last day trip was to Rome. And that was the exact opposite of peaceful! We tried to fit in as much as we could in one day, so we rushed from place to place. We took the fast train down to Rome from Florence early in the morning and went straight to the Vatican museums. We went through the museums (where I found what might be my new favorite painting in the modern art section)

Abbraccio di Papa Giovanni Paolo II by Pedro Cano

We then went into the Sistine Chapel, and then to St. Peter's Basilica. After leaving, we walked over to Piazza Navona and had lunch, and then made our way to see the Pantheon (with a gelato stop), the Trevi Fountain, the Spanish Steps and then made our way to the Colosseum. We then took the train back to Florence and pretty much collapsed onto the couch, after first picking up pizza to bring home. 

On our last night together we dressed up and went to a nice restaurant across the river, meeting up with a friend of mine for aperitivo first. We had a delicious, lovely dinner - followed, of course, by gelato!!

Post dinner gelato

It was so nice to be able to spend time with Tiffany; being away from friends is definitely the hardest part of living over here. We're already talking about a possible next trip. That, or Tiffany is working on how to telecommute to work from Florence :)

Summer Part Two - England

After twelve awesome days in Egypt (which you can read about here), I went with my mum and dad to England for six weeks (oh the luxuries of having two months of no work!)

How was the time in England? Here's a (really lame) rebus puzzle to answer that:

                             

FANTASTIC!!  (Fanta + Stick)

I had an absolutely fantastic time, from start to finish.
It was great to be able to spend lots of time with family, take in London sights and, of course, The Olympics!

We spent time with Nanny (my dad's mum) for the first bit, and it was really nice. We mostly stayed around Walton, although we did have a really long day in London, where we took in Hyde Park, the newly unveiled Bomber's Memorial, and then walked through Westminster Cathedral and also got to see where Dad did his culinary college.

I spent some time at my uncle and aunt's house with them and their two boys. I got to see Henry perform in his class's end of year talent show. We went to the park, and we played lots of Roller Coaster Tycoon on my laptop.

One of the days, Henry and I went to do a tour of The London Dungeons. I had done it before, but it was cool to go through with Henry (who was 10 at the time). Most of it was on the funny end of the funny-scary spectrum, but there were a couple of times when we both were spooked!  One of which was in a retelling of the Jack the Ripper story, when the lights went out and "Jack" appeared with a knife. I'm pretty sure everyone in the room jumped, but maybe not as high or with as much force as Henry, who practically ended up in my arms. It was awesome. That afternoon we then went to go see "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. It was a modern retelling, with the setting being a trailer park. It was terrific. A couple of weird moments, but overall it was really enjoyable, with cool use of music and a really, really cool set! We also spent a day at the Imperial War Museum, which was really cool and interactive. It included a bunker experience from WWI and an air raid shelter experience from WWII.

Propaganda where a shadow of Hitler is telling a woman to bring her kids back to the city. Creepy stuff.

Then Mum and I went down to Bath to visit Granny (her mum) and Dad joined us later. We had a great time at Granny's, filled with lots of walks, card games at night, amazing cooking, and just a little bit of wine! One day we rented a row boat and rowed along the canal, which was so fun.

After rowing down the canal, and watching all the rowing on the Olympics, I'm super interested in taking up rowing - all I need now is a . . . . boat, oars, and somewhere to row. Must get on this. We were so lucky with the weather all the time we were there. It pretty much rained non stop in June, but thankfully was clear, sunny, and even hot in July. Thank goodness!

We were in Bath for the anniversary of Pappa's death. We went to a special mass in the morning, and then we went to a National Trust house and garden for a picnic lunch and a lovely walk around. It was a gorgeous property, with a big lake, lots of trees and flowers, a beautiful house, and it was a lovely day. We ended our visit buying a plant which we put in Granny's garden in honor of Pappa. 

It was nice to spend so much time in Bath and get to have a feel for the place. Most days we walked into town and spent time wandering into shops or running errands (I got my watch fixed and renewed my passport). One morning Mum and I did the audio tour of the Baths, which was really interesting. Apparently we did it when we were kids, but I don't remember it. It was cool to hear about how advanced they were with therapeutic treatments back then, and it was especially interesting to learn about because of having been to Rome now.

The Olympics started while in Bath, and we watched the Opening Ceremony (which I loved!!) and many events over the next few days. I was super excited about the Olympics before they even started, but wow! It was so great to be in England for the Games. Everyone got so into it, you could really feel the energy everywhere. I remember watching when Britain won its first gold medal (Helen Glover and Heather Stanning won for women's pairs in rowing), and literally tearing up watching. That definitely wasn't the only time I got emotional over an event, the whole Games were full of them. 

The Tower Bridge decked out for the Games

We actually left Bath to go over to Wales for two nights, the first of which was to go to see England's football team take on Uruguay. Again, it was Fantastic!! We went first to visit Mum's cousin for some tea and to catch up, and then we walked from their place over to Millennium Stadium. 

The stadium from the outside

From our seats

We were impressed with how well organized everything was. There were definitely lots of people there, but we didn't wait in long lines, everything flowed smoothly. They did a bag check before even entering the park area, and at that point sealed up your bag so that the ticket takers would know it was all clear. And everyone in the crowd was friendly and happy to be there. England won, which was great (although they didn't make it that much further in the tournament).  It was really cool to actually attend an Olympic Event. 

I've now been to a World Cup game and a Summer Olympics game - maybe I'll head to Sochi for the Winter Olympics next year!!

We stayed in Wales with another of Mum's cousins and her family. The next day we got to visit Pappa's brother Paddy and his wife Celia, which was really nice, but also a bit sad for me. Paddy has the same laugh as Pappa, and it was a little unnerving to be around that. But, ultimately, it was a lovely visit, and I'm glad we did. 

That night there was a small party at Fi's house, and we got to catch up with even more of the Welsh family! It was lots of fun, even if we were all a little worse for wear the next morning. 

We then went back to Bath for the night, before heading back into London. I stayed with Helen and Steve again, while Mum and Dad met up with their friends for a mini-break. I went to Thorpe Park with Helen, Henry, George, Amber (my cousin), and her two boys (Denny and Bobby). It was a great day, with lots and lots of roller coasters. Henry is now tall enough to go on all of the rides, so he and I had a mad time rushing around to the coasters (my favorite). We also did some of the carnival-esque rides, which George, and sometimes Denny, were tall enough to go on. One of the last rides we went on was a ride based on the scary movies Saw, and that may not have been a smart decision on our part. 

It takes you through a haunted house where you see grisly and gruesome scenes from the movie, and then goes outside for a terrifying incline straight up, with a horrible drop afterwards. At one point on the incline Henry looks over to me and says "I don't think I want to do this" - a sentiment with which I wholeheartedly agreed! Thankfully it was over really quickly, and we decided against riding it again. 

I also went into Hyde Park one morning to watch the Men's Triathalon. I didn't have a ticket, but there were many parts of the course that were visible to the public. If I had been taller, I could have seen them swimming in the Serpentine, but as I'm not, I saw instead lots and lots of heads of other people. I did, however, see them all cycling around in the bike portion, but had to leave before the running started. 

I had to leave because Helen and I had tickets to see "The Taming of the Shrew" in the New Globe Theatre. We got groundling tickets, and it was cool to experience what it would have been like back in Shakespeare's time. It was interesting also, to see two Shakespeare plays in such a short time. They were very, very different in approach and felt so very different. The play at the Globe was much bawdier and broke the fourth wall, while the Shakespeare in the Park was more serious (as a format, still very much a comedy though). If that makes any sense?  At any rate, it was really awesome, although next time I might consider paying to sit down, it was hot and long!

Right after the play Helen and I decided to pop into the Tate Modern, which is right next door. It all sounds very cultured, but in actuality the exhibit didn't really do much for either of us, and we left pretty quickly afterwards. There was an exhibit in the turbine hall by Tino Sehgal that involved people moving around in swarms. A review of the piece included this gem of a line: "Paradoxically, his work is substantial and substantive, but it is totally without substance." Yeah, modern art is not really my thing. But I'm glad we went in and re-established that. :)

Then I met up with Mum and Dad and we went to visit family friends for two nights, followed by a weekend at Mum's sister Sarah's house. We had great fun with Sarah's friends over one night, lots of good meals, cheering on Tom Daley over the television, and even a visit with more cousins! We spent two days wandering around London. One with Mum, Dad, my cousin Isabelle, and her dad Dave. We got to see some really cool parts of London - Carnaby Street, Covent Garden, and more. We ended by walking Dave to his work, for the English National Ballet, and we got to walk in and see dancers warming up and rehearsing. 

GIANT Lego map of the world on the riverbank

It was cool to see all the ways London got into the Games

One day we met up with Mum and Sarah's brother, Paul, who was in town doing police work for the Olympics. We all had brunch, then drinks overlooking the Thames. Paul had to leave and Dave had to work, but Mum, Dad, Sarah, Isabelle, and I made our way back to their house, stopping at a couple (read: three) more bars on the way!  We went to this awesome tapas bar called Jose's which was delicious, and then learned that the owner had just opened up a restaurant down the street, so we walked down there and had a drink there too. 

Finally, on our way home, Sarah took us to this bar that is on the roof of a parking garage. I was a little skeptical at first, but it was so cool! Great views and a really fun place. 

The rooftop bar

View from the rooftop bar

Mum and I went one night to see "War Horse", which if you get the chance, I totally recommend! Definitely fantastic!! I had read the book, but I still got so caught up in the story and especially in the movement of the puppets. Unbelievable. They did a great job of making the horses really come to life. 

After Sarah's we went back to Nanny's for the rest of the time. We took a couple of days to go down to Hampshire to stay at the Four Seasons there before Dad had to go back to Egypt. It is a gorgeous hotel, and we spent our days walking, cycling, playing croquet and eating delicious food. It was a pretty wet, but great little break. 

One of the days at Nanny's Mum and I went down to visit some friends from Nevis. It was lovely to catch up on what's been going on, as well as reminisce about our time in Nevis. 

The rest of our time was spent around Walton, taking walks and exploring the area. We went into the retirement center with Nanny so that she could have a look around, and now I hear that she goes a couple of times a week, which is great. We also went to Bobby's first birthday party, where I played many rounds of Hide and Seek with Denny. We were also able to go see the rosebush they planted in Grandad's name in the cemetery. 

One of the nicest things about living in Italy is getting to see family that I normally don't get to see. It was wonderful to spend eight weeks with my parents and six weeks with other family in England. While the not making any money part wasn't too fun, it was nice to have a little break. Not sure that I would like it every year (finances) it was a truly fantastic summer.