Viva Italia!

Ciao Everyone!

Italy has been treating us so well that we have not been at a computer yet (that and the fact the internet cafes are charging a small fortune). It has been a busy 10 days since we arrived in Torino last Monday, so I will try to include some of the highlights here.

Milano was very beautiful with lots to see and do, and buy (if you are a millionaire). Our hotel was great, just about a 20 minute walk to the historic center of the city, through some nice residential parks, bars, and restaurants. The Duomo is wonderful during the day and even more beautiful lit up at night. We spent most of our time in Milano cruising around this historic area (although I was too chicken to go into most of the shops - I think you needed an appointment) and the nearby public gardens and parks where we actually got locked in one night and had several Italian couples asking us for directions out - like we knew! The social atmosphere of Milano as a whole is really exciting and unlike any other city we have travelled to: on any given night (not just the weekend) people of all ages spill out of the restaurants and bars into the streets chatting and laughing and dancing - children, couples with babies, people in their 20s, 80s, all together.

Minus the hookers, Venice reminded us both of Disneyland at first. With a little bit of effort however we were able to find some very beautiful off-the-beaten-track neighborhoods with some excellent galleries and exhibitions. We walked through the Jewish quarter of the city where we were very warmly welcomed, it turns out the small neighborhood is a very popular place of pilgrammage as we later learned. The small island of Murano to the northeast of Venice was wonderful and we ended up spending an entire day there watching glass being blown, looking at some amazing glass sculptures, and perusing the jewelery stores of the various local artists, which even the men on the island (Kevin included) seemed to be entertained by. The island of Burano was a bit smaller but just as beautiful (we decided it must be a rule that no two houses can be painted the same color) and was full of friendly locals, including an adorable 4 year old girl who found it hilarious to spray Kevin with water from the fountain outside her house.

After saying good-bye to Venice we took four trains to reach Cinque Terre, a national park comprised of 5 fishing villages built on the cliffs of the northwest coast of Italy. It was most definitely worth the effort, words cannot describe how beautiful this area is, and we tried hard to see as much of it as we could. We arrived in Vernazza, the second most northern village, and checked into a room on the top floor of a 13th century building, before spending the rest of the afternoon swimming and reading. That evening we set up shop with a bottle of wine and some plastic cups on the rocky cliffs near the sea and watched the water crash into the cliffs and the night fishers - I know it sounds too good to be true and that is exactly how it felt. We set off early the next morning to hike to Monterosso, the next village north, deciding to take the high routes because they were free and less crowded, soon discovering there is good reason for this. Lets just say we got good practice for Mantracker or Amazing Race because finding our way along the paths was more like a combination of bushwacking and treasure hunting. All was forgotten after climbing over 2,500 feet however, because the views from the top overlooking the villages were just spectacular. With the money we saved by hiking 8 hours over the mountain twice, we treated ourself to a very large and delicious meal by the sea.

Too sore to hike the third day, we opted for some beach lounging instead, before giving the mountain a try again the next day, this time attempting to reach Portovenere from Manarola. The hike started out very easy, our confidence was high as we were passing fellow hikers in our flip flops and we got some good Cranium Humdinger practice in. It didnt stay that way for long as we were soon lost (are you sensing a theme here yet) and climbing rocky stairs to the top of the mountain again in an attempt to meet up with the right path. We likely spent more time lost as opposed to on the right track over the following 6 hours, climbing down rocky cliffs, finding several dead ends, and avoiding the dangerous wild boar problem of the area, but the views from the top were absolutely worth all the scratches, burns, and bruises. We were definitely relieved to reach Portovenere, and opted to take a boat ride back to Manarola to hose off the layer of dirt we were covered in before finding a wine bar on the cliffs of Riomaggiore (next village over) where we watched the sunset and said good-bye to the Cinque Terre.

We arrived in Firenze this afternoon, and are happy to say have not gotten lost yet... although its not even 8 yet.

Ciao!

Korinne

xoxo

UK Farewell

Last time we left you we were just arriving in Edinburgh, Scotland. What a magnificent and beautiful city. Korinne and I arrived at the train station which is smack dab in the middle of the city around 9 am. With no place to stay we headed out in search of a hotel or hostel. After discovering that hotel rooms run upwards of $400 a night we decided on a nice five star hostel, a block from the Royal Mile. We dropped off our bags then took off to see the city. The castle is huge and on top of a hill right in the centre of town surrounded by cliffs. There are tons of monuments, statues, and churches in the city and all within walking distance of each other. Princes Street may be the most interesting street with modern shops, hotels, a beautiful city park, and The Scott Monument (a tall, black, gothic style tower). After napping and having a picnic in the park for lunch, we returned to the hostel for a drink and to check in to our room, which thankfully had its own shower. Later on we wandered back around the city streets in search of a pub with live music and found ourselves drawn back to the castle where live music was blaring from (we had seen them setting up for it right outside the castle gates). Unfortunately by the time we made it there, the concert (the band sounded very familiar but we couldn't hear the lyrics clearly) had ended so we followed the crowds of people down the Royal Mile until we found a pub with a 2-man band playing and suprisingly room to sit down. As the place started filling up, people (mostly our parents age) wearing t-shirts from the concert read 'Duran Duran'. It was too bad we missed that but it was a good night nontheless.

Day 2 in Edinburgh was a lot greyer and a lot wetter, it never quite poured but it was constantly drizzling. After wandering through the east part of the city the day before, Friday was dedicated to the west part which is totally different yet equally as insteresting. We stopped and had lunch at this tiny tea house (delicious) then continued on to the Palace of Hollyroodhouse and the Scottish Parliament, which is one of the coolest buildings I've ever seen. It's got concrete, brick, wood, and glass making up the outer walls which stick out at various angles and different geometries. Afterwards, with quite a bit of persuasion by myself, we set off to hike the Salisbury Crags (in our flip-flops of course). The crags are literally right next to the palace and are these brilliant green, gradually sloping hills with steep cliffs on the other side. It was definitely worth the climb as the landscape and views of the city are amazing. We then hiked down and ventured back into the city where we made our way up Calton Hill, which has an unfinished Parthenon and other national monuments, as well as more sweeping views over the city. After being in the rain all day we decided to take it easy the rest of the evening. We went to see Harry Potter 6 (best Harry Potter movie yet), ate some dinner, picked up our train tickets for the overnight train we were taking to London, then returned to the hostel to collect our bags.

Day 3 began with a 7 hour train ride to London in "reclining" seats. I managed to sleep a few hours but Korinne wasn't as lucky. We arrived in London at 6:30 AM and not being able to check into our hostel until 10, went in search of a park to pass the time. There we both were, tired, dirty, carrying everything we owned around the streets of London, if I had seen us walking around I would've thought we were a couple of bums. We eventually navigated our way to Regent's Park where we found a nice grassy spot in the sun to make up for our REM sleep deprivation. Around 11 we picked up our stuff and headed to the hostel which was nearby. We checked in to our 6-bed mixed room to discover we were the only ones and hoped it'd stay that way (very wishful thinking). The rest of the day was spent walking around the different areas of London, we started back at Regent's Park where the Queen Mary's Garden has, no joke, over 60 types of roses in huge plots. It was Saturday so we walked down to Notting Hill and through the market on Portobello Road (queue the music from Bedknobs and Broomsticks) where we saw (queue drumroll)... Mickey Rourke looking at antique clocks. After all that excitement we continued on our way to Kensington Gardens where Kensington Palace is (Princess Diana's home) then had a picnic dinner next door in Hyde Park. Having had little sleep the night before we began the long trek back to our hostel, walking up Baker Street (ridiculous amount of clothing stores) and finally down Great Portland Street. We arrived back at our hostel to find we were still the only ones in our room, so we hopped into our bunk bed enthusiastically, preparing for a good nights sleep. At around 2 AM, the door flies open and in walks 4 of what have to be the loudest, most inconsiderate French people ever. I'm not sure if they were drunk or just plain dumb, but they spent no joke 45 minutes unpacking their stuff and getting into bed knowing full well we were trying to sleep.

We woke up the next morning and came face to face with the French invaders. After faking a few smiles (and throwing in a few scowls) we took off to King's Cross Station to catch the tube for Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guard at 11. We got there just in time to find that 100,000 other people were running fashionably late as well. We managed to find an okay spot and watched most of the ceremony (not that great but worth seeing once). We wandered over to Parliament Square, Westminster Abbey was closed (Sunday = church day, wtf I'm Jewish). Crossed over Westminster Bridge, walked along the south bank of the Thames until we discovered a Colombian festival where we stopped to watch a 7-man, grammy-nominated band, Cimarron play for about an hour. After lunch we continued east past the Tate museum to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. We were both pretty pooped so we made our way back to the hostel via Victoria Station so we could buy our tickets for the Gatwick Express train for the following morning. After showering and changing in the hostel, we went in search of a local place to eat and found a small Thai restaurant which looked good (best Pad Thai I've ever had, no exaggeration). After dinner we called it a night and went to sleep in preparation for another French onslaught.

The next morning around 6 am we caught the train to the airport then flew to Torino, Italy. Stay tuned next time for part 1 of our Italian adventure.

Love to all,

Kevin

UK Part Uno

Hello everyone!

After a brief stop in Iceland and three hours sitting behind a screaming four-year old, we arrived in London last Tuesday safe and sound, and headed straight to the Glover’s home in Oxfordshire, where we enjoyed four days of great company and unbelievable food.

Wednesday we took the train in to London for the afternoon and somewhat aimlessly wandered through the city, although still managing to stop by at most of the city’s attractions: Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Piccadilly Circus, The London Eye, and Waterloo Station.

Kevin joined Will, Jan, and I for a little trip down memory lane, visiting the small village of Adderbury where Will and I lived as small children. As you can imagine everything was much smaller than I remembered, especially our old house (now inhabited by the grumpiest woman I’ve ever met) and the park (they finally took down our favourite slide, but I’m pretty sure the swings are the same). After some lunch at the local pub, we all headed to Warwick Castle, a proper English medieval castle north of Adderbury. We climbed all 500 steps up the towers and across the castle walls and watched a flaming boulder being hurled across the castle grounds from a trebuchet (we all felt sorry for the audience volunteers who had to wind it up like a hamster in a wheel).

Richard Glover took Kevin and I on our own private guided tour of Oxford University on Friday. Most impressive was Christ’s Church (some scenes in Harry Potter and Chariot’s of Fire were filmed there). We also climbed the church tower to look out over the city, visited New College (also from Harry Potter), and Richard’s old college Exeter. We had a lunch at one of the university pubs, The Turf, where groups of students had just finished summer exams, as evident by the black robes they were required to wear. After lunch and a few pints of beer, Kevin and I took our turn at punting, an Oxford and Cambridge tradition.

Basically four or five people pile into a flat-bottomed boat, similar to a gondola, and one person propels and steers the boat by pushing off the bottom of the river with a very long metal pole. I was better than Kevin (must be my English blood), but we both showed up the other groups of tourists who spent more time going across the river than down it.

Saturday morning we set off on the train for Hale (suburb of Manchester) to visit The Webbs. Ian, Diane, Jessica, Hanna, Kevin, and I went out for dinner at this great pizza joint in Manchester and caught up with everyone, as we hadn’t seen each other for about 3 years. Sunday we paid an outrageous amount of money for Kevin to tour through Old Trafford (for all you non-soccer fans where Manchester United plays), although it was quite an impressive stadium. After three hours touring the stadium, the dressing rooms, and going through a re-enactment of the walk on to the pitch through the tunnel (complete with a recording of fans cheering), we took the tram into Manchester and walked through the various shops and buildings.

Monday we packed up the car and headed to Conwy in North Wales with Ian, Diane, Hanna, and dog Bertie. Conwy is home to Conwy Castle, built in the 1280s right on the coastline and Britain’s smallest house (1 x 3 meters). We spent the first half of the day touring through Conwy Castle, which was very cool as it has been untouched since it was built. After some fish and chips on the beach, we found our way onto a pathway along the top of the old city walls, built around the same time as the castle, although interestingly the city walls serve the same purpose as they did then, most of the modern town still lies within its boundaries. That evening we had an epic three-set tennis match at the Hale Tennis Club on pseudo-grass courts, a first for both of us.

Tuesday we tagged along with Hanna to work in Leeds, starting our day at The Royal Armouries Museum (lots of guns). They had a really amazing display on Islamic, Chinese, and Japanese medieval warfare, with complete sets of armour and weapons from all the different areas, even Mughal Indian elephant armour (the only one in any public museum). There was a presentation on the history of firearms, starting in the 1700s, exhibits on knights and tournaments, big-game hunting, and the new exhibit on the Tower of London and its victims. We walked through the downtown of Leeds, such a beautiful city, with historic covered shopping centres, and large pedestrian only shopping areas. Wednesday Hanna, Kevin, and I walked through Hale and Altrincham, trying to find a barber for Kev, and a café for Hanna and I to sit out in the sun. Back at home, Ian had set out a tennis court in the backyard with twine and spikes for paddle tennis, and we played nearly all afternoon in the sun. Jessica and Hanna made an amazing meal and we all sat down for dinner, followed by videos and recordings of Hanna, Jessica, Andrew, and I as little kids, definitely entertaining.

We have just arrived in Edinburgh, Scotland, so far everything we’ve seen is beautiful, we will post photos before heading to Italy on Monday.

Love to everyone!

Korinne

Road Trip From Vancouver to Pheonix

So Korinne and I left our farewell brunch at Enigma on Saturday afternoon to head down to Seattle for the rest of the weekend. After some early delays leaving the city due to a forgotten cell-phone, not mine cause it's broken, and a few more goodbyes to our relatives we were finally on our way by about 6 pm.

Once we got to the border though the fun really began. The line at the pacific x-ing was less than 5 minutes but we were pulled over for inspection as expected. After our u-haul was briefly looked through the officer determined that I was "intending to immigrate" due to my dresser full of clothes being the first thing seen in the u-haul. We were then given a 45 minute lecture on how I wasn't allowed to do that because none of my immigration paperwork had gone through but Korinne was fine because she has a greencard. Finally, after nearly an hour of being scared half to death that our summer plans were ruined, we were allowed to enter the US although the next time I try to cross the border my name will be flagged but hopefully by then I will be applying for a work visa and it will be at the "nicer" Toronto airport border crossing.

Anyways, I feel I could rant on forever about my love for the border and everyone who works there, but I will get to the good stuff and the drive down. We got to Seattle in under 2 hours and proceeded to my friend Paige's place near the U-district on 45th Street. Saturday night also happened to be my friend Matthew Korch's birthday party at a frathouse-like bar in Queen Anne called Ozzie's. This place was pretty massive with 2 floors, 3 karaoke stations, and about 7 bars. After catching up with some of my childhood friends, both in drinking and talking, we then enjoyed a deluxe and fries at the infamous Dick's.

Sunday got off to an early start around 2 pm with brunch at the Pancake Corral in Bellevue. Paige, his roommate Mike, Korinne, and I then stopped by JDS, my elementary and middle school, which no longer looks like an insane asylum, but an actual school. I feel bad for the kids who get to play basketball without worrying about running into the walls of the gym or play soccer at recess on actual grass, not gravel with a few weeds poking out. That stuff definitely built character. We then returned to Seattle where we enjoyed some Molly Moo's ice cream, pretty, pretty, pretty good. Paige then had to run off for his brother's graduation dinner so Korinne and I walked around downtown Seattle and Pike's Place with my friend Ariela. Then we drove to Freemont, saw the troll and the statue of Lenin before having dinner at a bar called Norm's where you're allowed to bring your dogs in. Just because I could, I ordered a forty of pilsner which comes in a paper bag to go with my dinner. It was a pretty tame night other than that because a long day of driving was coming up.

On Monday we left Seattle pretty early in the morning, and after stocking up with a few snacks for the road we made our way down to California. We stopped in Beavertown, a suburb of Portland, to have lunch with Korinne's friend Alana who is going to school there and living in a beautiful neighborhood. A word to the wise, don't drive in the siskous of Northern California at night, especially not in a u-haul. It is steep, winding, and semi-trucks with no regard for the speed limit everywhere. Add a full moving truck and darkness and that's what we dealt with. I was having a bit of fun in between my sudden moments of panic as a semi sped past at 75 mph, but I'm pretty sure Korinne left some scratch marks on her seat. Needless to say we made it through in one piece and decided to stop for the night just north of Sacramento. We stopped in a town called Doogery or something which only had 1 hotel, if you could call it that, where we paid too much for a room only to find the toilet was broken.

After a few hours sleep, we got on the road heading to San Francisco but decided to do a little detour through Napa and Sonoma Valleys. It's pretty nice but there was construction being done everywhere so that kind of was a bummer, but I would definitely go back. We then made our way on US1O1 across the Golden Gate Bridge and into San Fran. The city is amazing, although the summer months are apparently not the time for the best weather. Korinne and I went to the Fisherman's Wharf, the Marina, Crissy Field, walked through the Presidio neighborhoods to the Palace of Fine Arts, and drove part of the scenic coastal drive before meeting up with Korinne's friend from high school Ellie Ford. Small world story here, it turns out Ellie's roommate is a girl I was friends with from my high school in Bellevue. Korinne and I already knew that but she had no clue so it was a bit of shock for her to say the least. Korinne, Ellie, and I then went to dinner at an amazing Thai restaurant by her apartment then had a few drinks at a bar called the Blue Light. Unfortunately we could only spend 1 night in San Fran but we definitely could have spent an entire week or more there, incredible city.

Wednesday was a long day of driving from San Fran, through Oakland and the traffic of northern LA, then across the mountains of eastern California into Arizona and finally to Phoenix. Korinne and I have been relaxing a bit and hanging out with my fahshja and sis, golfing in the 1OO+ degree heat, enjoying the 4th of July with my future boss and his family, and doing quite a bit of preparing for our trip to Europe.

We leave for London in about 15 minutes so I'll wrap up by saying it's already been quite an adventure but I'm excited for what lies ahead in the coming weeks.

Kevin