| the riviera and bologna |
[Aug. 14th, 2009|03:45 pm] |
you thought i'd forgot about this, huh? nope, just lazy, as usual.
so, we left from paris on a midnight train, goin' anywhere... well, actually, it was like a 10 o'clock train and it was going to antibes, in the south of france. details, details. we got in early in the morning and wandered around, pissy, sweaty and hot, for almost an hour, stupidly lost. i am not a conservative person, but as i hate being lost and wandering around as such, i tend to be really, really, conservative about finding my way. i follow posted signs NO MATTER WHAT, for example. in this case, that was pretty stupid and got us lost. oops.
so eventually we made it to juan les pins and our hotel. i don't have a lot of pictures from juan les pin, but it was nice, small, and pretty quiet. we went straight to the beautiful beach and i swam and floated around, whilst cheryl "had a paddle," as i am fond of saying. i soon concluded that mediterranean = best. sea. ever.
the second day, we went on a day trip. bus ridiculousness ensued, but eventually -- in spite of asshole french bus drivers -- we made it to st. paul. it was scenic as fuck.
st. paul, awesome mideaval walled city. it dates to the 13th century.
display chair from some antique shop, looking all scenic. strange thing about st. paul was it had GREAT shopping. it was all art galleries and quirky boutiques, but they were really good. i got the best pair of shoes ever here.
door draped in jasmine. everything in the damn riviera was draped in jasmine and man, it smelled GOOD.
pigeons!
near the villiage was the fondation maeght, a cool modern art museum. we had to pretty much hike almost a mile to get there and it was kind of up in a forest. i think we were both thinking it was a jessi map-fail until we actually bought out entrance tickets.
this is cheryl in the miro garden. it cost extra to take pictures, so i guiltily only snapped the one. but this was a damn cool museum, people, and a pretty good end to a sweet day,
we were only in the riviera for a few days, and we mostly *actually* vacationed -- relaxed, took naps, sat at the beach, ate cherries. from here we went on to bologna, and let me tell you, that was no easy feat.
FRENCH RAIL STRIKE!
those mothereffers. basically, if we were going to get to bologna on that day, we had to get the hell out of france and catch the train in italy. after an epic local bus tour from antibes to menton, we finally got our asses into italy with only minutes to spare. awesome itialian old lady got us on the train, though, and we made it! once in bologna, there was more epic bus fail, and we ended up very specifically given directions into the middle of freaking nowhere. we solicited help from two nice looking guys, from whom we reluctantly got a ride to the hotel street. it is a testament to the bullshittitude of that effing day that we took that ride. when we got to the hotel, it looked like this:
only dark, and with no lights. but it was actually a really nice hotel, and the lady who worked there felt bad for us, and microwaved us some risotto. they had a fantastic breakfast by the by.
so, bologna. well, i have to say, i didn't care for it. there wasn't much to do, what i did find sort of interesting closed before we found out about it, it's not spectacularly beautiful or anything, and, well, i was in a shitty mood. the "day which shall not be named" had taken it's toll and bologna certainly wasn't putting forth a lot of effort to woo me, in the manner of paris, for example. (it was a little pretty, in spots, though... to be fair).
in the end, i decided to stop being a pooper and go get a coffee from the Caffe degli Orefici, as recommended by The Splendid Table's Lynne Rosetto Kaspar.
And can I just say, THANK YOU JESUS -- I mean, Lynne -- this was the best coffee I have ever tasted, oh my god, and holy jesus. Trancedentally good. Rich, chocolately, not a trace of bitterness, and taken with only the tiniest amount of sugar. SO GOOD.
So then, we just ate. We had gelato. We had rice balls. We checked out the various foodstuffs on display and the little old Italian ladies shopping for them.
We took a tiny break to go to H&M, and then we went to dinner. On the way we saw this little weirdness:
Apparently Bologna used to have lots of canals, in the manner of Venice. Now they run underground, except in this little spot. And in the wall in an alley is a tiny window which looks out over the canal. So, dinner was both amazing, and terrible. The food was possibly the best I'd ever had, but my enjoyment was dampened by Cheryl starting to barf, and then by some bitchface stealing her 20€ and causing a big ridiculous scene by her continual lying about it. I prefer to block those bits from my memory, because when all was said and done there was no way the situation was going to end well for everyone. But as I said, the dinner was amazing and the restaraunt looked like an Anthropologie set.
up next, florence!
i'll probably do an actual "my life" post here soon, too.
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productive
cheerful
creative
groggy