Wednesday, October 10, 2007
Italian trains
The complete Italian train schedule looks like a miniature phone book, it's 500+ pages of detailed charts, maps and symbols and is available at most newsstands for 4.50 Euros. It was intimidating at first, but we quickly figured out how to decipher most of the various codes and icons. We've gotten pretty good at moving around by train. There are the usual idiosyncrasies (Among other things, we discovered i festivi (holidays) sometimes means "holidays" but sometimes it just arbitrarily means "weekends"). Beyond that, though, we're very impressed with how efficient the train system is here. It's an incredibly large and sophisticated network that has thousands of arrivals and departures planned down to the minute over hundreds of stations and hubs. And, many small-town stations only have one or two tracks, which I assume requires an additional amount of coordination to manage the flow.
Slideshow: Pompeii
From Sorrento, we've worked our way up through Orvieto, Assisi and Siena... right now we're in the Cinqueterre. Internet access has been infrequent but we have a couple posts coming soon... in the meantime, here are some of our photos from Pompeii:
See them full-size on flickr.
See them full-size on flickr.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Book recommendation
In Egypt, Samar recommended to us a novel-- The Yacoubian Building by Alaa al Aswany. Jacqueline was completely absorbed by it while we were in Egypt, and I'm just starting it now. It's a very popular, very controversial novel that paints contemporary Cairo in a bleak light. The movie version (recently released) will have to go on our Netflix queue when we get back.
Month-a-versary
We are officially at our four-week mark today. Happily, we don’t feel burnt out as we worried we might be. Most of the time when we travel, we pack every day with tons of activity, coming home exhausted. But given how long we will be gone, we have decided to approach our time with a different mindset: marathon vs. sprint. We have to pace ourselves, and intersperse ‘adventure’ days with rest days/chore days. For instance, today, instead of getting up at 5:30 to queue up for the packed tourist bus to drive down the Amalfi Coast and take the ferry back, we are hanging out in our very nice Sorrento hotel and swimming in the Mediterranean. I can’t get over the guilt, though—- the feeling that there are places that I have wanted to see for years (right down there!) and I am not going. Tomorrow, however, we have three trains and seven hours of travel time to Orvieto...so today we need to recharge. Italy is ITALY after all—we will definitely be back...
Sony CyberShot deathwatch
The island of Capri is supposedly becoming hip again. It's been a luxurious vacation spot since Roman times, but it's appeal waned somewhat in the seventies, with the rise in popularity of places like Mykonos and Ibiza. Though more downmarket than it was in the fifties and sixties, it still has cache, and the beautiful people are beginning to return.
One of Capri’s most famous locales is the Blue Grotto, a large cave accessible only by rowboat from the sea. At high tide we had to lie way back in the boat as if it were a recumbent bike, in order to squeeze through the small entrance. The cave has a limestone bottom, and the water glows a bright blue from the reflected sunlight below. The effect is similar to a lit swimming pool at night; it's quite beautiful. Here are some photos I found online, and here's the Wikipedia entry.
We don't have any photos of our own, because... well, the camera and I went underwater, sort of. Yeah I know, I know, I was probably being reckless, bringing the camera on the rowboat and all. But I had a Ziploc at the ready, and my, ah, "contact" with the water was a freak accident, coming at a time I fully expected to remain dry. Just outside the opening, our rowboat guide pulled on the chain to get us inside (wave rises... wait... wave subsides, pull!) and the wake of the previous boat completely covered me (and only me). I was entirely underwater for a moment. I spit out saltwater even as I protectively clutched the wet wet camera. Jacqueline was seated in front of me, facing forward, and she hadn't noticed the wave that hit the back half of the boat. Inside the luminous cave she was in awe, whispering to me "Wow! This is amazing!"...after a minute or so she turned around to ask why I wasn't taking any pictures. I was sitting in 3 inches of water, and she was completely dry. (In fact everyone who had entered the grotto that morning was completely dry. Lucky me.)
The camera was non-functional for about 45 minutes... eventually we got it to turn on again (it had dried, perhaps). At the moment, thankfully, it's working. We've put the camera on a death watch, to see if salt corrosion might kill it in the coming days or weeks.
Given the duration of our trip, we had worried our camera might need to be replaced at some point. The logistics of getting a good (and reasonably priced) camera is tricky; overnight shipping from Amazon doesn't seem feasible, what with all our moving around (oh yeah and it would be painfully expensive too). We're not keen on buying a new one in a tourist town and paying for it in Euros. We're hoping it will last a while longer, at least until we hit Hong Kong...
One of Capri’s most famous locales is the Blue Grotto, a large cave accessible only by rowboat from the sea. At high tide we had to lie way back in the boat as if it were a recumbent bike, in order to squeeze through the small entrance. The cave has a limestone bottom, and the water glows a bright blue from the reflected sunlight below. The effect is similar to a lit swimming pool at night; it's quite beautiful. Here are some photos I found online, and here's the Wikipedia entry.
We don't have any photos of our own, because... well, the camera and I went underwater, sort of. Yeah I know, I know, I was probably being reckless, bringing the camera on the rowboat and all. But I had a Ziploc at the ready, and my, ah, "contact" with the water was a freak accident, coming at a time I fully expected to remain dry. Just outside the opening, our rowboat guide pulled on the chain to get us inside (wave rises... wait... wave subsides, pull!) and the wake of the previous boat completely covered me (and only me). I was entirely underwater for a moment. I spit out saltwater even as I protectively clutched the wet wet camera. Jacqueline was seated in front of me, facing forward, and she hadn't noticed the wave that hit the back half of the boat. Inside the luminous cave she was in awe, whispering to me "Wow! This is amazing!"...after a minute or so she turned around to ask why I wasn't taking any pictures. I was sitting in 3 inches of water, and she was completely dry. (In fact everyone who had entered the grotto that morning was completely dry. Lucky me.)
The camera was non-functional for about 45 minutes... eventually we got it to turn on again (it had dried, perhaps). At the moment, thankfully, it's working. We've put the camera on a death watch, to see if salt corrosion might kill it in the coming days or weeks.
Given the duration of our trip, we had worried our camera might need to be replaced at some point. The logistics of getting a good (and reasonably priced) camera is tricky; overnight shipping from Amazon doesn't seem feasible, what with all our moving around (oh yeah and it would be painfully expensive too). We're not keen on buying a new one in a tourist town and paying for it in Euros. We're hoping it will last a while longer, at least until we hit Hong Kong...
Guillotine! and other amusements
Usually, when we're tired, stressed, punchy, or just wandering around somewhere strange, we’ll spontaneously compose some (add-libbed) songs to pass the time. Sometimes they're based on an existing melody, sometimes we invent our own; rarely are they longer than a verse or two. Here are some sample song titles from the trip so far:
“Ramadan, Rammmaaaadaaaan”
“It gets cold in the desert” (Sung w/ a Dwight Yoakam twang)
“That’s not a pinecone”
“In the Hashemite Kingdom...of Jordan!” (also sung w/ a country twang)
“Somebody woke up angry”
“Prego is a sauce”
“Cancer kitty”
“Su-su-subito” (sung to the tune of Phil Collins’ “Susuido”)
“You don’t care but I care” (sung to the tune of: “Do You Hear What I Hear?”)
“(Teenagers are annoying) All over the world”
“There’s a sign, there’s a sign (It will tell you where to go)”
We also invented some games to play when we're bored or exhausted-- usually in line or waiting for something. Our four mainstays are "Guillotine","Hammer","Scorpion" and "Squish". They only last long enough for one of us to get hurt.
“Ramadan, Rammmaaaadaaaan”
“It gets cold in the desert” (Sung w/ a Dwight Yoakam twang)
“That’s not a pinecone”
“In the Hashemite Kingdom...of Jordan!” (also sung w/ a country twang)
“Somebody woke up angry”
“Prego is a sauce”
“Cancer kitty”
“Su-su-subito” (sung to the tune of Phil Collins’ “Susuido”)
“You don’t care but I care” (sung to the tune of: “Do You Hear What I Hear?”)
“(Teenagers are annoying) All over the world”
“There’s a sign, there’s a sign (It will tell you where to go)”
We also invented some games to play when we're bored or exhausted-- usually in line or waiting for something. Our four mainstays are "Guillotine","Hammer","Scorpion" and "Squish". They only last long enough for one of us to get hurt.
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