Home Sweet Home

It's good to be back...

But it's a little hard to get all the balls back up in the air again. I'm slowly settling back into the old routine and starting to juggle between work, wedding plans, and the remodeling, along with all the other cruft that comes with life as we know it.

It's All Japanese To Me

I'm trying to type on a Japanese keyboard right now, hoping that I don't send it into Kanji mode (I've got no clue what key I hit that pushes it into this mode, but I've already done it twice so far). I also don't know what I've got to do to get it out of Kanji mode, so my only recourse is to just close the window and open a new one. Super annoying. It doesn't help that most punctuation keys are at different locations.

I'm at the LaQua Spa at the Tokyo Dome right now, and just gotten a massage, so I'm ridiculously relaxed. If there's one thing the US needs to import from Japan, it's these onsen type establishments. There's a small one in San Francisco (Kabuki), but it's not quite the same.

OK, gotta run now to catch the last train back to the hotel, and then it's bed time -- gotta get up early to go to the Tsukiji fish market tomorrow for some super sushi.

Unimpressed with Russian Hospitality

I can't say I've been terribly impressed with Aeroflot, and by extension, Russian hospitality. I'm not sure where one ends and the next begins, but I'm sure that I won't be flying Aeroflot again if I've a choice.

• There were flies on the plane from Rome to Moscow. Seriously. Buzzing in the bathrooms, and buzzing in the cabins. I'm not talking one or two, I'm talking a full squadron of them scattered throughout.
• They don't seem to have a solid grasp on how long the flight should actually take. The itinerary says 3:40 hours, the captain says 4 hours, and we actually take close to 4:30 hours. This is with clear skies all the way. How do they anyone to make connections reliably this way? I mean, there were no real delays per se, we should have been able to arrive on time, but everyone just sort of took their time.
• The hotel they put us up in (Novotel) was relatively crappy. There was an empty beer can under the desk when I got in; both bed side lamps had blown bulbs; and the furniture was flimsy - I managed to pop out the back of one of the chairs.
• And worse of all: no one was even vaguely apologetic about the missed connection. Everyone I came in contact with seemed bored and unconcerned, as if this was just the natural course of events, or slightly annoyed, as if it was somehow my fault for forcing this inconvenience upon them!
• I also felt an undercurrent of hostility over the fact that I did not speak Russian. I'd understand it if I was randomly accosting people on the streets, but everyone here worked at an airport -- they should be used to the fact that many people do not speak Russian. I've been in many countries where I did not speak the native tongue before, but this was the first time that I've felt that I was unwelcome because of it (including the French).

Update: The second leg from Moscow to Tokyo was more pleasant. Part of this was because of the plane itself, a Boeing 767 vs. a Tupelov TU154. Even so, as far as long flights go (this leg lasted almost 10 hours), this was probably the worst.

Free International Phone Calls

Got this from Pogue's Tech Blog: Futurephones is offering free international phone calls to select countries (which includes all countries I can think of calling).

For those too lazy to read, the short version is: call 712-858-8883 (that's in Iowa), then when you're connected, dial 011 and the phone number you wish to call.

No one seems to know what the catch is, but they're claiming they want the free publicity and will keep this up till 2010. And for the moment, they can't connect to cell phones.

Stuck in Moscow

*sigh*

My flight from Rome to Moscow was late, causing me to miss my connecting flight to Tokyo. The next flight is in 24 hours, so I'll be spending the night in a nearby hotel, courtesy of Aeroflot. They've put me up in a hotel, along with several others who also missed the flight, but we're pretty much restricted to our rooms since we don't have an entry visa for Russia. Missing the connection wouldn't have been so bad if we were at least allowed to wander around town during the day.

Instead, we can't leave the floor we're on. The elevator is behind a locked door and there's a guard on duty at all times. When I went to the front desk to purchase a passcard for wifi access, I had to be escorted by another security guard. At least they're feeding us, which is sent directly to our rooms. We don't get to pick what we eat. It's all a little surreal.

Oh, and we don't get our luggage either, so yay, I get to spend 48 hours in the same set of clothes.

On the bright side, there's 'net access (only because I've been lugging my notebook around), and I've what's shaping up to be a pretty good book: Stephen Lawhead's Empyrion.

Lost and Found

Had a bit of a panic yesterday. We were supposed to meet Charity at the hotel we were staying at in the morning, but she never showed up. After a wee bit of stressing, she finally appeared at 5pm, and it was entirely by chance. She had thought that we were meeting on Friday morning instead of Thursday morning, and the only reason she was at the hotel at all was because she was in the area and thought to make sure she could find it easily the next day when she would be carrying her luggage.

Anyway, alls well in the world now, and Venice awaits...

Reading Material

I always bring a long a book when travelling, and this time I brought a backup in case I finished the first too quickly. Imagine my surprise on the first day when I learned that the ship actually had a small library with some decent books! And books that I've been wanting to read, at that.

Which sort of explains how I finally managed to read Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I miss his Sandman comics, and this book definitely reminded me of those stories. Highly recommended if you get the chance -- it's a real fast read.

Venice

Spent the day at sea today, and we've just docked at Venice. The thing that excites me most about Venice is that I'll finally be meeting up with Charity tomorrow. Wheee!

Corfu

Another late start again today at Corfu, Greece. There are no major archaelogical sites here; the major attractions are the historical buildings and districts, as well as some scenic locations and beaches in surrounding towns. For George, my mom and I, however, we pretty much treated Old Town as a huge bazaar and spent the day shopping...

Jim and Jeanne had gotten off the ship before us so that they would have time to frolic on a beach. Alas, they reported that they didn't find anything as nice as on Mykonos.

This is our second to last port. At our next stop, Venice, we'll be disembarking for the last time. A shame, really, as I've just gotten used to this whole cruising thing...

Olympia

It's getting harder and harder to wake up early as the cruise goes on... We didn't go ashore to Katokolon, Greece till 10am, some three hours after we arrived. What's at Katakolon, you ask? Nothing. All the guides describe it as a "sleepy town." What it has in its favor, however, is the fact that it's the closest port to Olympia, the site of the ancient Olympics. Even today the flame for the Olympics is lit at Olympia and carried to wherever it is to be held.

The first order of business for the day was finding some breakfast, as we had decided to eat it on shore today. More specifically, I wanted to find a bakery. We'd discovered early that we really like the pastries that could be found in Greek pastries, and when we finally found one, we were not disappointed.

After that, we rented a car and drove to Olympia, which was some 39km away. Of all the major archeological sites we've visited so far, Olmpia feels the least preserved. All that's left are the foundations and a few columns. On the plus side, there's a sense of calmness and serenity here. It could be the fact that there were trees all around, or that we arrived after the morning tourist hordes and left before the afternoon tourist hordes, or some combination of the two, but I definitely felt a lot more at ease here.

The funnest fact I learn today was about the Zanes - statues to Zeus constructed with the fine an athlete had to pay if he was caught cheating. Their name would be carved into the statue's base, along with his crime. There were sixteen of these before the entrance to the stadium as a warning to others.

Athens

Our port of call today was Athens, Greece -- the cradle of western civilization -- and I've been looking forward to this stop the entire trip. The highlight, of course, is the Parthenon in the Acropolis. It's immense. Pictures don't quite convey how large and imposing this structure is. Unfortunately for us they're renovating the entire Acropolis right now, so the structures are incomplete. There's scaffolding everywhere, they've taken down entire columns from the Parthenon, and the Temple of Nike Athena is practically dismantled. Even so, what's left is still awe inspiring. I can't imagine how the ancient Greeks built everything, and the fact that it has stood the test of time is incredible. They sure don't make things like they used to.

We also visited all the surrounding sites: the Agora, the Temple of Olympian Zeus, Hadrian's Arch, and Syntagma Square (very briefly; we were getting tired and running out of time).

As in Pisa, I was once again surprised at the amount of graffitti around these major historical attractions. I just can't fathom the lack of pride that would allow someone deface their national monuments. True, the graffitti isn't on the sites themselves, but it is on all the approaches to them. It's just sad...

Mykonos

Today was a good day. Although the ship docked at Mykonos, Greece fairly early, we didn't get off till some time after 9am. We were planning on a relatively low key day and decided against going to the nearby island of Delos, where most of the archaelogical finds are. As a result, we spent most of the morning wandering around Mykonos city, exploring the tiny tiny streets and the multitudes of stores. We ate lunch on the beach (at Platis Gialos), and spent the rest of the afternoon in the water. It was absolutely beautiful; the sun was out and the water was that wonderfully Aegean blue, cool, and crystal clear. Everything was just absolutely perfect.

Kusadasi

We had a short day today. The ship docked at Kusadasi, Turkey at 8am this morning and we went ashore soon after. Jeanne had done some research ahead of time and got us a private tourguide, so we were up and running pretty much immediately.

The main points of interest that we visited were the Temple of Artemis (the largest building of the ancient world and one of the seven ancient wonders), the House of the Virgin Mary, and Ephesus. Ephesus was amazing. By comparison, Pompeii is a mere shadow.

After lunch, we got sidetracked at a rug store, where we all ended up buying something. We spent so much time there that we had to cut our tour short and return to the ship since the last boarding was at 5pm.

Right now, I'm back on the ship and sitting in the Explorer's Lounge where they're holding an art auction. I think I'm going to bid on a couple pieces...

Santorini

Today's stop was Santorini, Greece. It's a beautiful island, and I wish I had more time to spend here. Instead of sightseeing, I decided to go scuba diving instead. This is my first dive outside the US (everything's in metric!) as well as the first one in a long time where I have not used my own equipment. And eventhough the sun didn't cooperate (it was overcast and cloudy all day), visibility in the water was still excellent (easily over 60ft).

My first dive was at the New Volcano. There aren't many fishes out here, and the ones that are swimming around are all small/young. According to some other divers, this is because the area has been overfished. The most interesting fauna I saw were fire worms, which were rather fun to watch. The highlight of the dive, however, was the wreck (my first) at the end, at a depth of 30ft. It's supposed to be one of the first steel ships in the area. No one knows why it sank, and the top two theories are sabotage and insurance fraud, with the latter being the heavy favorite.

My second dive was a wall dive off Caldera Beach. The highlight of this one was when we stopped to feed the fishes some bread. I literally had a swarm of little fishes around me, nibbling at both the bread I was holding in my hands and my hands themselves. They were so intent on the bread that I could actually reach out and smack them around ;)

The trade off for scuba diving was that I didn't have the time to go to Oia. Apparently, lunch was simply amazing according to my mom and my sister. *sigh* At least we have a few more Greek ports on the itinerary.

Day at Sea

Spent the day at sea today as we sail for Santorini, Greece.

My major accomplishment? I slept for about 12 hours...

Naples and Sorento

We woke up in the Bay of Naples this morning. We finished breakfast just as the ship finished docking. From the top deck, looking into Naples, the Castel Nuovo dominated the foreground. Behind us, Mount Vesuvius sat crowned in a halo of clouds.

Our original plan was to catch a taxi to the train station to get to Pompeii. When we got to the taxi stand, however, the cabbies started selling us on taking the taxi directly to Pompeii. Much discussion and attempted haggling ensued. To make a long story short, they stayed firm on their prices and we agreed to hire one to take us to Pompeii, then Sorento, and then back to Naples. We soon discovered that this was a wonderful stroke of luck genius on our part.

On the way out of Naples, we got to see some pretty crazy driving. Traffic going the other way was backed up (rush hour traffic), and to get around that some drivers were actually driving down our side of the road...

Honestly, I thought Pompeii would get old pretty quick. I mean, how many ruined buildings do you really need to see? I'm happy to report that I was wrong. We spent two and a half hours wandering around, and could easily have spent another two. My personal favorite was the small amphiteatre, where if you stood in exactly the right spot every sound you made (hum/whistle/sing/speak) would be echoed back to you. Move even a bit in any direction and you wouldn't get the effect. The amphiteatre is your standard Greek half-circle amphiteatre that seats about 5,000, and the spot is the center of the perfect circle inscribed by its outer rim.

I did notice one thing that Charity would not like about Pompeii: there were dogs all over. I believe they're were strays, and would find one dozing pretty much around every corner.

From Pompeii we headed to Sorento, and it's an absolutely gorgeous drive along the coast. This was also when the cabbie started proving invaluable: he knew all the vista points to stop at for us to take pictures.

When we reached Sorento, our thoughts had turned to lunch, but the cabbie advised us to walk around downtown before the stores closed for the afternoon, which we did. We met back up with the cabbie at 1:30pm, and asked him to take us to a restaurant where the locals would go. We were not disappointed. Lunch was absolutely spectacular. I had a caprese salad (huge chunks of mozarella in between thick slices of tomato with olive oil and herbs), spaghetti a vongole (the best spaghetti I've ever had, in a clam sauce that was just perfect), and cozze alla Pronvecale (mussels Provencale-style). Mmm...

The last time I was in Italy, I was sorely disappointed in the food. This one meal made up for all the past disappointments. I guess we must have been really unlucky last time and just picked sub-par restaurants.

After lunch, we headed back to Naples, where we wondered around downtown before boarding the ship. All in all it was a great day, with the highlight definitely being lunch.

Livorno & Pisa

The ship docked in Livorno early this morning. We woke up to a wet and drizzly dawn and it pretty much stayed that way all day.

The first thing we did was to catch the train out of Livorno to Pisa, where we did the tourist thing. The leaning tower is definitely a sight to behold. Pictures do not do it justice, and I was suitable awed. Definitely worth the visit. The Duomo (cathedral) was also very interesting and worth the price of admission. It's a bit harder to say the same for the Baptistry, although seeing (or more accurately, listening) to the acoustics demonstration was nice. As for the Campo Santo (cemetery), in its current state of repair/renovation, it is eminently skippable unless you're a real fan of tombstones and sarcophagi.

A minor disaster occured at the top of the leaning tower of Pisa -- the battery in our camera died. Jeanne had bought a new camera (the Canon PowerShot SD700IS) for my mom and no one thought to charge it up the night before... Incidentally, this little camera has been absolutely terrific so far.

From Pisa we went to Lucca and wandered around its old, twisty streets and plazas, sticking our heads into the odd church or musuem that were scattered about. Unfortunatly, we only had about 90 minutes to spend here since we'd taken our time in Pisa and had to get back to the ship by 5:30pm. Nevertheless, my mom and George loved it. While Pisa might have the more spectacular attraction, they prefered the Lucca's ambience.

I learned a three unexpected (and disappointing) things today:

1. There's grafitti everywhere. And I do mean everywhere, which detracted from the sights.
2. Italians are serious about their siestas. Except for the stores selling tourist souvenirs, almost all other stores are only open from about 9am-1pm and 4pm-8pm. Since we have to get back to the ship by around 6pm or 7pm, that basically means we've got to do any shopping we want to do between 9am-1pm, and we're usually focused on seeing the sites first so shopping is pretty much not an option.
3. There's a feeling of getting nickle and dimed at some of the attractions. The worst example of this is at one church where they had lights set up to illuminate the paintings on the walls. The catch? You had to pay to turn the light on!
4. I am not a big fan of the time limitations we have to operate in due to the cruise format. We basically have nine hours (plus or minus an hour depending on the port) to look around, and if we want to travel out of the town we docked in, that really doesn't give me as much time to sight see. It's a constant struggle deciding between quantity or quality, and it can get quite stressful the close it gets to the departure time.

By the time we'd gotten back to the ship, we were all bone tired and immediately hopped on to the hot tub/steam room/sauna circuit. Bliiisssss...

Go directly to bed. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

Mah Jong Parlor

I'm quite amused that the Chinese on the cruise have taken over the games room and converted it into a mah jong parlor. Five of the ten tables have been monopolized, and I can hear the oh so familiar click-clack of the tiles from where I'm sitting.

Bad Weather

So much for Monaco... The captain woke us up at 7am this morning with an announcement that we would not be stopping at Monaco due to inclement weather. Apparently there's no sheltered docking available there. I ran up on deck just in time to snap a few foggy shots of Monaco in the distance.

We're now chugging our way to our next stop, Livorno. I'm staring out a window on one of the lower decks and the waves definitely look pretty big.

First Post (from Italy)

Finally landed in Rome after some 15-odd hours in the air. Caught the train to Civitavechia, where I spent the night at a B&B. The second B came in the form of a ticket for a free breakfast at a cafe down the street, Nero Bollente, which had some wonderful pastries.

I made my first language mistake here -- asked for a latte and got a cup of milk! A not altogether unpleasant surprise -- the milk was steamed and had chocolate powder sprinkled on top. Unexpectedly good.

Met up with my mom, George, Jeanne and Jim a couple hours later and boarded the cruise ship, and spent the afternoon exploring. The important discover: there's a wireless network available, but it's $0.35/minute. *ouch*

It's a little after midnight now and I'm typing this from one of the top decks in the aft. It's pitch black outside the radius of the ship's lights, and I can just make out a few lights twinkling in the distance.

Our first stop will be at Monaco, and it's time I went to bed.