Vacation Post #4 - England (and Briefly Belgium)

On Monday morning we headed out through the Channel tunnel to NATALIE! Brief walk around Latimer Road (not a street, just a Tube stop, or the Tube stop and the street are not near each other, or something...) and Notting Hill but not much doing that day. It was at this point that I had gotten sick and exhausted and spent the next two days (aside from a lunch outing to the Russian embassy with Natalie) flat on the couch while Lat roamed the city streets unaccompanied. We spent Tuesday evening at The Lion King, one of the best things I have ever seen. Ever. (Even though my ticket is upside down.)

And Wednesday evening cooking (or watching Lat cook) spring rolls before heading to York Thursday morning to see Emily and Dan. We had a lovely tour of York, it's minster (not cathedral), grocery stores, and the wall surrounding the city that you can tell is very very not American because there are no guard rails to be seen! Fish and chips for dinner, up the next morning to briefly glimpse Emily's castle (Conisbrough Castle to everyone else) on our way to Roche Abbey where Emily was working for the day. She VERY kindly bought us a guide book and we wandered through the ruins figuring out what the crazy monks did in each "room." ie square grassy area enclosed by some stones. We also walked in the woods around the Abbey and were kindly fetched by Emily's parents mid-afternoon to head on another outing to see the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest and find Robbin Hood's special cows... of course! Here lies the last photo I took! (Not sure what keeps their horns from growing into their noses?) 

Lovely dinner eating early-anniversary savory pie and panna cotta and birthday breakfast for Emily's dad before we headed to the wedding. Jonny and Rosie were married in a gorgeous ceremony in a gorgeous location where we played word games & croquet, ate and ate and ate, danced and tented out... overall a great time. Sunday morning we boarded an ill fated train to London... and after about 5 hours of 'this platform, no that platform, no this platform' we finally arrived, the only travel hiccup of the whole trip. We said our goodbyes and I boarded a train to Brussels to stay with another friend Emily for tea and ice cream before heading out early the next morning. Safe and sound and arrived in America, we certainly have an epic trip to look back on! I spent a lovely summer at home and arrived back in Kin on July 29th to prepare for two weeks of teacher orientation, new teachers and then all of us. It has been busy! Just catching my breath after the first week of school. 

Vacation Post #3 - France

Lat's idea of 'constant vigilance'... catching up on zzzzzzzzzzs before the loud talker got on the bus!

We arrived in Lyon EARLY in the morning and headed to our hostel on foot (not exactly close, but what else were we going to do at that point in the day? "I believe I was misled on how far this was" said a grumpy Lat who had listened to LOUD Arabic phone conversation all night...) where we were welcomed very warmly even considering that we were sleep deprived, cranky and smelly. The hostel let us shower, leave our bags and eat breakfast even though we were not technically paying customers until that evening. We headed out to see some lovely early morning sights in Lyon. Up the stairs of course. (Elephant Church below, no we did not see Sparky the pigeon Natalie) 

It was gorgeous but it didn't change the fact that we were exhausted. 

Attempting to find the kayak rental place on the river was a fail, so we walked back to our hostel and conked out. Post-napping kebabs and boggle made for a nice evening. 

The next morning we got up for Lat to have an early morning fiddle concert in the Roman amphitheater.. up the stairs AGAIN... then we boarded the train for PARIS! Greeted by large vans of gun wielding policemen on both ends of the street leading to our apartment, we were forced to speculate that we were staying at the site of (a) a VERY unsubtle stake-out or (b) the residence of someone important. After an eventful time trying to figure out which apartment our keys went to, we headed out for some walking (Lat) and laundry (me). After Lat attempted to get back in the apartment and was questioned by MORE police (undercover this time) we got groceries and stayed indoors!  

Saturday, June 27th was spent on an epic (4mph) walking tour of Paris. Courtyard of the Louvre:

Arc de Tripmphe

Eiffel Tower (Stairs! I was expecting it by that point)

Napoleon's Tomb

June 28th was spent as a museum day! Musee d'Orsay and Musee de l'Orangerie were both very pleasant and worth the visit. (I have been to Orsay when it was under construction and underwhelming, not the case this time!)

France was lovely! Tiny lofted apartment was a little hot but very suitable, good location and a good fan to cool off the loft. We ate yummy falafel, saw lots of parades and interesting people watching, and had a good time.

Vacation Post #2 - Italy

After debarking from the ferry (debarking the ferry?) on June 20th we entered the small city of Brindisi by bus and located our gorgeous B&B where we deposited our bags. We spent an afternoon trying to deal with confusing bus boarding directions (Brindisi tourism department, while VERY well meaning, didn't have the most fluent English speakers as employees) and I was about ready to throw in the towel, but Lat was very persistent and we managed to make it to the SEA!

Where we observed banana hammocks and ridiculous jetskiers (in photo above) and played BOGGLE!

The next day, Sunday the 21st, we boarded a train to take us to our Roman apartment. It was HUGE and very pleasant, with his and hers bedrooms and a large living room. Lat played some mind games (and electrical games) with the washing machine, but other than that we really enjoyed our accommodations. 

We took a mammoth walk the next day to take in the sights, starting with, of course, some Roman walls (and pretty flowers and clouds, you would think I had never seen clouds before) 

The Colosseum (I know I should have made it so there was sunlight on the building but otherwise I like the picture. Colosseum on the right, obvs) and more clouds...

The Pantheon - I had been there but never been inside and overall was underwhelmed by the decor but the round hole in the top is insanely cool. 

And Piazza Navona, where I was very excited by the bird on this guy's head...

The next day, Tuesday the 23rd, we headed to the Vatican (early!) and climbed all the stairs to the top of St. Peter's Basilica for this view: (bugs me now that I did not center myself - or the camera?!? we were marveling at how far the symmetry goes.)

And then down to look back up at where we had been standing:

And then inside where we combined Lat's love of marble (or whatever stone this is?!?!) with Ellen's love of taking feet-standing-places pictures: 

And (gee this is a lot of 'and') admired the baldacchino (and the dudes cleaning it: "What did you do today honey?" "Well I got into my safety harness and was lifted to the top of the 98 foot baldacchino to do a little light dusting.")

It looks like wood but according to Wikipedia is actually bronze.

We spent our afternoon eating all-you-can-eat sushi and (hilariously) making the rounds of Italian post offices and Mailboxes Etc.

The next day, the 24th, we began what I think Lat would call the longest bus ride of his life... with short old wavy haired driver and his assistant (though this was much debated) the taller younger short haired driver (goodness it would have been simpler to ask their names!) We endured at least one if not more life-and-death our-bus-driver-thinks-he's-in-a-race moments and arrived in FRANCE at 5am Thursday the 25th. Lyon doesn't have a lot going on at 5am.... but that is for the next post.

Vacation Post #1 - Greece

Lat (friend from Enosburg) and I were in Athens for three days, June 16, 17, and 18 we spent them in a lovely small Air-B&B apartment (only quirk being the lack of shower curtain) overlooking Mount Lycabettus and a hilarious demolition site that provided hours of amusement. You would only have to see Lat's pictures to know just how amusing it was.

June 16th was arrival day, and then on June 17th we hiked Mount Lycabettus (rather quickly)

to look out over the Parthenon as you can see below. I thought the "trees" were cool.

On June 18th, we went to the Parthenon - I was very taken with the clouds and attempting not to get other tourists in photos. Success? In a nutshell: It was pretty, and old, and pretty old.

We then walked down and entered the Agora near the Acropolis to find this building, the Stoa of Attalos, which made all the parts of me that are obsessed with logic and order and uniformity (a lot of parts of me!) sing with joy.

As the skies darkened, we headed down the hill to Temple of Zeus the where this toppled column made me (a) hungry for pepperoni (b) impressed with the craftsmanship of these insanely old and still super perfect structures. Apparently that fell over in 1852 and has just been hanging out there since then! 

Lightning started threatening as we entered the Panathenaic Stadium, but that did not stop us from climbing all the way to the top and then making our way down to run around. (Complete laps for both of us! Not like the other lame tourists who just ran a short portion for photo ops!) It was built in marble in 329BC (just a few years ago, you know) and had it's fair share of ups and downs before being reconstructed to host the first modern Olympics in 1896. With seating exactly like Centennial field before the new seating upgrade.

We got inside (mostly) before it started to rain. (Some of the only real rain we saw the whole trip.) Later we headed to the ocean in Athens (which turns out to be just a whole lot of ferry boats, including the boat filled with bajillions of our closest friends who had been on the Parthenon tour with us earlier in the day.

Overall, I enjoyed Athens... so much good fruit, relatively cheap prices for food (keep in mind I was arriving from Kinshasa) and attractions (we bought one ticket for the Parthenon that also got us in to the Agora and Temple of Zeus, the Stadium was a bit more but not bad),VERY nice guy who showed us into and out of our apartment, EXTREMELY lovely bakery near our apartment with amazing olive bread, fun food market near our house where we got good cheese and sausages, helpful man who pointed us toward the bus station, (relatively) cheap metro tickets, resulting in an overall very pleasant impression of the city. Greek is difficult (it really is all Greek to me) but with Lat and his trusty hand written alphabet, we were all set.

Midday on June 19th we boarded a bus to travel north (looked a lot like Corsica) to Igoumenitsa to catch our ferry that night. I was very very taken with the chimney toppers that everyone seemed to have... I thought they looked like birds, but I imagine they are made to funnel the smoke a certain way?!?!

We played a LOT of boggle over milkshakes and sandwiches and boarded our ferry at 2am June 20th to head for ITALY!

Pagne Fashion Revue (Some Vacation Preview)

Realized that since my first picture of my first purple skirt with matching bag, I have not documented any of my pagne clothing on the blog. After this, I think I will put up some (more) vacation photos.

Purple star fabric shirt (with friends at a birthday party)

Bubbles fabric shirt (with pink on the back, Athens photo by Lat)

Purple matching fabric dress (bus from Athens to Igoumentisa, photo by Lat)

Blue/Yellow/Orange and Blue/Purple/Green dresses (same pattern, Rome photo by Lat)

At a friend's wedding in Britain while on vacation:

 Looking altogether too serious for the occasion?!?!? And that hair...:

Both photos taken by a friend of Rosies, I was much too tired for photos by that point!

There are also two more skirts and many bags in all kinds of different makes/models. Will need to get more fabric hung on the wall and more ideas in my head for new projects. Christmas will be upon us soon....

Absence

Hello All!

I keep thinking that I have been struck with new inspiration and good ideas for posts with all the comments on my blog when I was home, but haven't had much energy to get up to much of anything recently. Here goes nothing. I arrived back in Kinshasa for year two on Wednesday evening and am now helping with the new teacher's orientation for the upcoming week. Not exactly school, but here on campus nonetheless. Before I do some vacation-in-review, I wanted to show you all my (our) new house! (The inside is still a mess from my half-baked unpacking so no pictures, it looks the same I promise!)

There you have it, folks! I forgot how dusty dry season is... dust everywhere, my new flip flops are all gross already, but other than that things seem relatively the same as usual (new billboards on the way to TASOK from the airport and a new airport terminal being the notable exceptions.) Nice "cool" temps and leaves falling make it feel like back to school... however it's not winter but wet season that will arrive soon.