So Stephen has been in the States working for just short of 2 weeks. He'll be home in 4 more days. I've been marveling at how my lifestyle changes the longer he's gone.
At the beginning of his absence I made (from scratch) chicken fried rice - it was fun, relatively easy and delicious! In the middle, I was still cooking/grilling and enjoyed some gourmet spiced turkey sausage. Last night I think I may have hit a low...pan fried spam and instant mashed potatoes. Well, I thought so, until I was at the check-out at the grocery store today.
My cart included: Cat food, wheat thins, fresh fruit, pimento spread, a frozen turkey dinner and a Twinkie. I started to laugh at myself. It was the perfect confluence of crazy cat lady and "table for one".
"Oh, common" you say, "how in the world does your cart say 'crazy cat lady'". Well...I had cat food...60 cans of various flavors. Which roughly equates to half a metric ton of cat food. Cat Food + frozen dinner = lonely woman* w/ cats :D
Stephen better get home soon...I'm not sure where this downward spiral will take me ;P
*Don't worry, I'm not actually lonely. I've got 3 cats!
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday, July 9, 2009
When in Rome...
...Do as the Romans!
And we sure tried!!
Stephen, Mom, Dad and I took a little weekend trip to Rome, Italy (July 3-6, 2009). We spent 4 days in the bustling cradle of civilization and took in all the sights we could.
We arrived after midnight on Thursday night. I had specifically chosen the hotel for its location. It was just 2 blocks from the train station where our shuttle would be dropping us off. The unfortunate part was I wasn't sure which 2 blocks away it was.
We set out with a hunch and about half an hr later we found the hotel. The neighborhood was quite sketchy. Homeless people, marauding hooligans...but no one bothered us. We asked about 9 people where our hotel was and they just kept saying "Keep going, straight ahead"...or some version of that.
On Friday, we did the Vatican museum and St. Peter's Square. We had our first gelati and dined in a great family restaurant not far from our hotel. It was also our first taxi experience. If you've never been to Rome, then there's no way you'd know that traffic is the most insane in the world...yea, yea, yea... you can say "sure, but you don't drive in (fill in the blank - D.C., Atlanta, Chicago). To that I say bulls***t! This is the most insane traffic in the world!!!
Cars are double and triple parked on two way streets with buses and semi's not making any attempt to slow down. Lines are on the roads, but within city limits, they mean very little. Passing is the fine art of the mentally instable. Scooters passed on the left while trucks blazed thru on the right. Oncoming traffic? No problem, they'll have to slow down or stop to get out of my way! Pedestrians have the right away...unless the car you're in can drive faster than they run into the street.
Thou Shalt Not Drive In Rome - Leave it to the professionals...and buckle up, just in case.
On Saturday, we did the Coliseum and finished the day in the most expensive and luxurious restaurant I've ever been in. The meal was an EXPERIENCE. This four course meal included appetizers, pasta, beef main dish and dessert. The walls were lined with autographed photos of celebrities from the past and present. The Restaurant had been in existence for over 100 years!
On Sunday, we went to the beach. We took the urban train out of the city center all the way to the Mediterranean coast and spent a couple hours resting on the beach and exploring the area known as Ostia. We then finished the day with a bit of comfort food...McDonald's. We just couldn't eat any more pasta. Pasta is eaten at every meal (except breakfast, but I'm sure we could have gotten it). Don't get me wrong, it was the best pasta I'd ever had. But one can only take in so many carbs and rich sauces.
On Monday we each went our separate ways. Mom & Dad did a Hop-on/Hop-off bus tour and hit all the major sites. Stephen and I headed back to St. Paul's to get photos from the inside of the Basilica then enjoyed a stroll from the Spanish steps (with all the amazing high end designer shopping), thru Piazza Republica (beautiful fountain & national museum), past the main train station and then back to the hotel where we waited to meet up with mom & dad to head back to Germany.
The weather was excellent! The only complaint was that it was so darn HOT. It was in the mid 90's every day. Not a cloud in the sky. Thankfully I brought my sun hat and spent as much time as I could under my hat or jumping from shady spot to shady spot. No one got sunburned...oh, well, except for dad on beach day, but it was very mild and he was recovered by the next morning.
The trip was just the right amount of time. Four days is just enough to get sick of the hectic traffic and strange food. I was very happy to return to the rainy, cold climate of south-west Germany but more importantly, my bed.
New photos have been posted. Check them out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiwatson/
And we sure tried!!
Stephen, Mom, Dad and I took a little weekend trip to Rome, Italy (July 3-6, 2009). We spent 4 days in the bustling cradle of civilization and took in all the sights we could.
We arrived after midnight on Thursday night. I had specifically chosen the hotel for its location. It was just 2 blocks from the train station where our shuttle would be dropping us off. The unfortunate part was I wasn't sure which 2 blocks away it was.
We set out with a hunch and about half an hr later we found the hotel. The neighborhood was quite sketchy. Homeless people, marauding hooligans...but no one bothered us. We asked about 9 people where our hotel was and they just kept saying "Keep going, straight ahead"...or some version of that.
On Friday, we did the Vatican museum and St. Peter's Square. We had our first gelati and dined in a great family restaurant not far from our hotel. It was also our first taxi experience. If you've never been to Rome, then there's no way you'd know that traffic is the most insane in the world...yea, yea, yea... you can say "sure, but you don't drive in (fill in the blank - D.C., Atlanta, Chicago). To that I say bulls***t! This is the most insane traffic in the world!!!
Cars are double and triple parked on two way streets with buses and semi's not making any attempt to slow down. Lines are on the roads, but within city limits, they mean very little. Passing is the fine art of the mentally instable. Scooters passed on the left while trucks blazed thru on the right. Oncoming traffic? No problem, they'll have to slow down or stop to get out of my way! Pedestrians have the right away...unless the car you're in can drive faster than they run into the street.
Thou Shalt Not Drive In Rome - Leave it to the professionals...and buckle up, just in case.
On Saturday, we did the Coliseum and finished the day in the most expensive and luxurious restaurant I've ever been in. The meal was an EXPERIENCE. This four course meal included appetizers, pasta, beef main dish and dessert. The walls were lined with autographed photos of celebrities from the past and present. The Restaurant had been in existence for over 100 years!On Sunday, we went to the beach. We took the urban train out of the city center all the way to the Mediterranean coast and spent a couple hours resting on the beach and exploring the area known as Ostia. We then finished the day with a bit of comfort food...McDonald's. We just couldn't eat any more pasta. Pasta is eaten at every meal (except breakfast, but I'm sure we could have gotten it). Don't get me wrong, it was the best pasta I'd ever had. But one can only take in so many carbs and rich sauces.
On Monday we each went our separate ways. Mom & Dad did a Hop-on/Hop-off bus tour and hit all the major sites. Stephen and I headed back to St. Paul's to get photos from the inside of the Basilica then enjoyed a stroll from the Spanish steps (with all the amazing high end designer shopping), thru Piazza Republica (beautiful fountain & national museum), past the main train station and then back to the hotel where we waited to meet up with mom & dad to head back to Germany.
The weather was excellent! The only complaint was that it was so darn HOT. It was in the mid 90's every day. Not a cloud in the sky. Thankfully I brought my sun hat and spent as much time as I could under my hat or jumping from shady spot to shady spot. No one got sunburned...oh, well, except for dad on beach day, but it was very mild and he was recovered by the next morning.
The trip was just the right amount of time. Four days is just enough to get sick of the hectic traffic and strange food. I was very happy to return to the rainy, cold climate of south-west Germany but more importantly, my bed.
New photos have been posted. Check them out at http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikkiwatson/
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