Monday, January 28, 2008

The Tale of the Police Car Ride

Getting a handle on the public transport system in London takes time, and when you take 3 modes of transport to get home from work, then that creates 3 possible places where things can go wrong. Add to this situation a couple of beers in large glasses after work, and there you have a potential transport disaster waiting to happen. This indeed happened to me last week, and I ended up in a place called Lewisham. Sounds nice huh? Well, it wasn't.

After finding the correct bus-stop to get a bus back home, I set out to find it. It wasn't on the main street, and was several back streets away. I set out, my iPod keeping me safely within my own Bananarama world. When I finally found the correct street, I was panicked to see the bus I needed heading down the street towards me. Picking up the pace, I raced across the road towards the bus stop, nearly being run down by a slow moving car. Reaching the bus doors I caught sight of the bus drivers sour face before he drove off leaving me stranded (many of the bus drivers in London seem to have chips on their shoulders, not like the black cabbies at all).

A policeman, not unlike the ones that drove me homeI then saw that the car behind me was a police car, and they stopped a short distance up the road from me and reversed up to where I was standing. Here I was, thinking: would they search me? Would they frisk me? Damn. They're not going to frisk me.
"Want a lift to the next bus stop?", asked one of them.
"Oh, sure!" I replied.

I jumped in the car and they asked which way the bus went. I said that I had no idea, so then they just said "ok then, we'll drop you off home then", which they did. On the way they told me that where I was walking around was actually pretty dangerous, and they advised me not to walk around with my iPod out.

So I only have nice things to say about London policemen. They tend to be rather handsome also...

babaaa

Sunday, January 06, 2008

The Tale of the 4 Cities and Capodanno

This tower is famous, it leansAfter Firenze, Daniele picked me and Taka up and we went on a grand tour by car of Italy. First stop was Pisa, where we jumped out of the car and took some snaps. Something that Taka and I started to notice about Italy as well, is that quite a few buildings lean. Not quite as dramatically as in Pisa, but enough to make you think twice about going inside them. Didn't climb the Leaning Tower however, as it was packed full of tourists and it was more fun watching them scramble about. Besides, Taka and I were a bit monumented out after Firenze.

Next stop was Rimini, where we met some of Daniele's friends and had a nice dinner. We drank "spritz" which is a mixture of Campari and white wine. They are quite strong, and come in large glasses. After a couple and all the excitement of the day, I ended up returning to the hotel to watch "Friends" in Italian. Rimini is very pretty, and the city centre is beautiful, but I think I am starting to appreciate it less now, after seeing so many beautiful city centres. I'm starting to get a bit numb I guess.

A blurry picture of San MarinoThe next day, we jetted off to San Marino, which is still an independent state. It is basically a big castle on top of a hill, a very large hill, which was the obvious strategy for avoiding invasion for so long. The easiest way up was by cable-car (also the most fun way). I resisted trying to scare people by shaking the car (after my cable-car experience in Hong Kong a couple of years ago, ended up scaring myself the most). I also used a machine that punches a 2 euro piece into a pretty piece of metal that says "I love you San Marino". So trashy, so of course I had to have one.

After S.M., we drove to Bologna, where Daniele lived for many years. There is a beautiful church on the top of a hill in Bologna that is quite famous. There are over 666 steps to the top of it (this is true, I asked a Bolognese), and it takes around an hour to get to the top. It was a tough climb. I could tell because the people looked really tired as we drove past them. The church itself was fascinating. Like many Catholic churches, there are lots of opportunities to pray to saints rather than the more important deities. Kind of makes Christianity polytheistic, right? There is also a machine that you put your candles on that slowly takes them along a long metal tray and dumps them in a box at the end. Progress and technology even reaches churches I was happy to see.

We stayed in Daniele's old apartment in the city centre and had real pizza in the restaurant around the corner. Yum. Real pizza for once. Was delicious, and we went for a walk around the city later on, where we saw the two huge towers (one of them leans, see what I mean?) In the main piazza, there was a wooden effigy that was going to be burned as part of the New Years Eve (Capodanno) celebrations. This is quite common in Italy, and it symbolises the burning of the old year to make room for the new one. Sounds like a grand excuse to toast marshmallows to me. But I love fire, so was instantly attractive as well. Perhaps there would be a witch that needed burning. Ah, a witch! But more on that later.

For New Year's Eve, we went to a dinner with a big group of friends in a smaller town called Faenze. Going out in the country is becoming more popular here. The menu was a degustation, and we had about 9 courses plus wine. Some were a little strange (like cream with green olives, *ew*). But for the most part the food was amazing. I have discovered that there is a time while I am nearly drunk where I can understand Italian a lot better than when I am sober. Not certain why this is, but in any case once I do actually get drunk, this benefit is lost to an equal degree, and I struggle to understand English, let alone Italian.

This woman looks like the burlesque Berlin singerAfter midnight, the music was supplied by an experimental burlesque group from Berlin. Firstly they strung ribbons from the ceiling, and some slightly plump ladies did a show, slinking up and down the ribbons. I say slinking, however it was more like slumping, as they weren't particularly graceful, in fact one of them had a little fall and nearly hit the floor. Still, it was entertainment. Then the singer came on. It was great, exactly how I imagined. She read bad poetry in English against a musical background, so Berlin. The highlight of her number was her song Cats on Crack, which went like: "Cats on crack, cats on crack, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow..." etc. This had us laughing in the car all the way back to Bologna. The best New Year's I've had in ages!

Meow...

Friday, January 04, 2008

The Tale of Florence and the Machine Dinner

A cranky Italian womanI took the train from Chiusi in the countryside to Florence. Such a strange place, because I always thought Florence was a big city, but in reality it is tiny. The old city can be walked from one end to the other in an hour or so. All the streets are tiny, and until you hit a piazza or a large intersection, you have this strange claustrophobic sensation, because one tiny crowded street just runs into another. It's dangerous to walk on the road, so you are just stuck walking at a snails pace behind the crowds, and there are crowds-a-plenty in Florence. I thought that between Xmas and New Years it may be a little quieter, and perhaps it is, however there are loads of people about. Some asking me for directions! The people are a much friendlier here though, and so I am having some more interesting conversations.

It is always less motivating to find a nice restaurant when you are travelling by yourself, and the first night in Florence I found a nice solution. There is a small shop near my hotel that dispenses full Italian meals. You just put in 4 euros, select your pasta/pizza and then in 60 seconds it spits out a ready hot meal. Mmmm... I had ravioli al ragu. It was rather salty and not evenly hot, but it was satisfying. Later I suffered some indigestion, but I guess that is the price that we have to pay for progress. Suffice to say that my Italian friends were absolutely devastated that I had done this. Some refused to listen at all. Hehe...

The next day I met up with T___, J___ and T___ , and we went to visit some of the important sites. First stop was the Galleria dell'Accademia where Michelangelo's statue of David is. Is amazing because the statue is much larger than I realised. It stands over 30 feet tall. Not only that, but every feature is perfectly balanced and in proportion. The symmetry is amazing. There were also lots of portraits, so many of the Madonna and child. You would have thought that they would have got sick of painting that after a while. There is a whole wall just of Madonna and childs. I didn't see any of Madonna and Lourdes though (I would have filled out one of the suggestion forms, but didn't know how to write it in Italian).


After that we walked around the city, saw lots of churches and cathedrals, which are all amazing, large and ancient. We strolled over the Ponte Vecchio (an old bridge over the river filled with jewellery shops). And ended the day by visiting an amazing palatial garden, which stretches for ages through different types and styles of garden.

Am loving Italy. LOVING IT!

Baaaa