Taste of Orlando
9 years ago
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Friday, May 14, 2010
My parent's have collapsed!
Well, it's hard to sum up the remainder of our trip although yesterday (the return flights home) would be described as nothing less than exhausting, which I'm pretty sure after Venice my parents would say the following week was pure hell! I think they had a great time, don't get me wrong, it was just very hard for them, the walking, the long hours awake, the endless halls of museums, the Tour di Catholocism (aka - church death-march), the cobble-stones, the high winding stairs of the Duomo, absence of caloric intake (my lack of fore-sight to pack snacks), the lack of public restrooms and their disappointment that Benedict didn't accompany us on the Church Death-March. After 27 hours of traveling yesterday, we were laid up in Chicago longer than we were supposed to be, apparently they were having problems with the lavatory of which I don't think a single person used in the 35 minute flight!
Looking back at it though, as we were driving out of Rome, I think the "negative" aspects of the trip started to fade in my parent's minds, all they could talk about was how amazing it was to actually see the pope and to see St. Peter's bones (more on this later). It made me especially happy to know that everything didn't just "suck", as their initial impressions had led me to believe, and they had some really great experiences in between the "suck" periods. I think I may have made my Dad finally see the superiority of red wines... okay, maybe that's a bit far but I think he's able to drink them without the usual grimacing choke that usually accompanied his intermittent swallows. It was also interesting to see my Dad semi-intoxicated on a nightly basis, having grown up and been privy to him being drunk once in my life.
I think though, I owe my parents a large debt of gratitude for them being such good sports with everything that was thrown at them. It was long hard trip, of which they've never experienced before, I really did punish them for all of our summer family vacations. Jenny and Sarah can back me up on this, when we were thirsty from walking all day long, July in Orlando is hell, through the amusement parks of Disney my Dad would casually tell us to, "swallow our spit" instead of buying us a $2 bottle of water. Or when we needed to go to the restroom tell us that after the next three rides we would be closer to the bathroom; the ride lines were each an hour long! Or going all day with only breakfast in our stomachs until we finished with the parks around 8pm, finally going to a restaurant to eat only to realize that our stomachs hurt as the food re-stretched them to size.
Well, it was payback time, although I didn't plan on it, the trip in Italy was interestingly cruel to them. Now that they're older, going to the restroom is much more frequent, kind of like when you're 8 years old! Also, my parents and Betsy and I being the cheap-skates we are, tried our best to get by on breakfast in morning and have an afternoon treat of gelato before eating dinner in the evening, of which I didn't and probably will never hear the end of.
They did great though, just like Bill and Laura a month before them, they put up with whatever was thrown at them and, aside from a little whining and crying, dealt with it as well as any other 58 year olds would. It was great to stand behind them and see how excited they became as they saw the pope bless the crowds below in St. Peter's Square! Or to hear my Mom actually ask questions on the tour of St. Peter's tomb, it really showed her interest in the tour. Anyway, I feel this is getting long-winded, like most of my posts, so I'll talk about our experiences tomorrow, accompanied with our "best-of" pictures we took along our trip. It feels good to be back, thank god for real peanut-butter and pretzels, oh how I missed you so!
-Ryan
Looking back at it though, as we were driving out of Rome, I think the "negative" aspects of the trip started to fade in my parent's minds, all they could talk about was how amazing it was to actually see the pope and to see St. Peter's bones (more on this later). It made me especially happy to know that everything didn't just "suck", as their initial impressions had led me to believe, and they had some really great experiences in between the "suck" periods. I think I may have made my Dad finally see the superiority of red wines... okay, maybe that's a bit far but I think he's able to drink them without the usual grimacing choke that usually accompanied his intermittent swallows. It was also interesting to see my Dad semi-intoxicated on a nightly basis, having grown up and been privy to him being drunk once in my life.
I think though, I owe my parents a large debt of gratitude for them being such good sports with everything that was thrown at them. It was long hard trip, of which they've never experienced before, I really did punish them for all of our summer family vacations. Jenny and Sarah can back me up on this, when we were thirsty from walking all day long, July in Orlando is hell, through the amusement parks of Disney my Dad would casually tell us to, "swallow our spit" instead of buying us a $2 bottle of water. Or when we needed to go to the restroom tell us that after the next three rides we would be closer to the bathroom; the ride lines were each an hour long! Or going all day with only breakfast in our stomachs until we finished with the parks around 8pm, finally going to a restaurant to eat only to realize that our stomachs hurt as the food re-stretched them to size.
Well, it was payback time, although I didn't plan on it, the trip in Italy was interestingly cruel to them. Now that they're older, going to the restroom is much more frequent, kind of like when you're 8 years old! Also, my parents and Betsy and I being the cheap-skates we are, tried our best to get by on breakfast in morning and have an afternoon treat of gelato before eating dinner in the evening, of which I didn't and probably will never hear the end of.
They did great though, just like Bill and Laura a month before them, they put up with whatever was thrown at them and, aside from a little whining and crying, dealt with it as well as any other 58 year olds would. It was great to stand behind them and see how excited they became as they saw the pope bless the crowds below in St. Peter's Square! Or to hear my Mom actually ask questions on the tour of St. Peter's tomb, it really showed her interest in the tour. Anyway, I feel this is getting long-winded, like most of my posts, so I'll talk about our experiences tomorrow, accompanied with our "best-of" pictures we took along our trip. It feels good to be back, thank god for real peanut-butter and pretzels, oh how I missed you so!
-Ryan
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Venice, eh...
We are now in Venice, my parents arrived safe and sound, albeit a bit wet. Venice has been less than comfortable, rainy and overcast most of the time. Luckily we do not plan on taking a gondola ride this trip so the driving rain will not be too uncomfortable, I also do not think the gondoliers are all that affiable during the rain anyway. Speaking of affiable people, the Venetians, as most already know, are terribly rude people. I should preface that comment, the people working hospitality are very unpleasant. The food has been questionable at times and the wine just ok, luckily we have a couple better places on the agenda in the near future! I cannot wait to get into Florence, after such a lovely time in Siena, I think Betsy is also excited. Also think that my parents may be sick of looking at Venetian masks, just a bit. I am afraid Venice is too wrapped up in itself that it does not see it´s own flaws. I guess that is what happens to an island city that revolves solely around tourism. As most know, Florence is the home to much of what we know as true Italian cuisine, art and culture, it will be nice for everyone to see it for their first times... not that I am looking forward to leaving Venice but the crappy weather helps along without the door hitting us in the respective butts!
Ryan
Ryan
Friday, April 30, 2010
Mello-brunello
So, we've left Africa and moved on to civilization, ie Italy! We're rewarding ourselves after months of questionable food, no raw veggies and horrible beverages with pizza, salad and wine galore! We're in Siena now, in the heart of Tuscany. Yesterday, we went on a wine tour of the Montalcino area, which produces Brunello, Ryan's favorite wine. The highlight of the tour was a stop at a little winery in Torre Neri (black tower). We were guided through the cellars by Mario, frisky 78-year-old vinter who only spoke Italian. He then proceeded to get us drunk, feeding us wine throughout the tour, in addition to the very liberal tasting at the end, which included a shot of grappa. After getting completely toasted, he passed out the orderform. We may be sleeping on the street for the rest of our trip in Italy, but at least we have 4 bottles of great wine!!
Next on to Venice to meet Ryan's parents, hoping they like gelato, since that's our main staple here.
-Betsy and Ryan
Next on to Venice to meet Ryan's parents, hoping they like gelato, since that's our main staple here.
-Betsy and Ryan
Monday, April 26, 2010
Brass Mummy, You Funky Mummy
Cairo has been quite the whirl-wind tour as we've only had three days to explore... Whirl-wind comes to mind when speaking of the Nile cruise we took on the first evening on being in Cairo. When deciding to take a dinner cruise we thought it would be dinner on a nice little boat motoring around on the river, oh we got that and SO much more! For entertainment two whirling dirvishes came out, one was a little person and the other Robert Downey Jr. I'm really thinking he needs to do that for his next movie, who needs a sequel to Iron Man when we could watch him doing a whirling routine?! It was like a car accident, horrible but impossible to take your eyes off. After that we had a belly dancer come out, this is my time to explain my dislike of belly dancers, they make me overtly uncomfortable and this was no different. The woman had giant breasts and was less of a belly dancer and more of a booby shaker, most of the men were having a good old time. One guy taking pictures was especially funny to watch as his wife glared at him, I'm thinking she was in my frame of mind, not entertained. In reality, the Nile cruise was so amazing it needs its own posting but due to the shortage in time, this is all it gets for now.
The next day we traveled out to the pyramids in Giza, but being the cheap-skates we are, we decided to try to take the bus instead of a taxi, yikes! It took about 30min to find the bus stop and to top it off the numerals were in arabic, which we cannot read. Luckily, the Egyptians we've met along the way have been very kind and assisted us along the way. If it weren't for the five different men we met in the various buses we took, I don't think it would have been successful. As we hopped off the final bus we started hoofing it West, thinking we'd find it eventually. Well, it practically hit us in the face, pretty hard to miss as they are HUGE! It was a pretty amazing site, if only we could get the camel peddlers to leave us alone so I could take a picture or two, man they poop a lot!
Speaking of poo, yesterday we went to the Citadel, well, tried to get to the Citadel... We flagged down a cab this time, thinking it would be quicker, and told him, Citadel. The Citadel, a fortress built in 1176, is a major, if not the second most important landmark in the Cairo area next to the pyramids. Cairo Citadel, large fortress situated on top of a huge hill in the middle of town, something you can see for miles! I kept saying Citadel with the idea that it will somehow sink into the cab driver's head, no such luck. He didn't have a clue and everyone we asked along the way didn't have a clue either, it was overly frustrating as he cris-crossed the Nile three times when we started on the correct side to begin with! I even had a map to show him as to where it was located. Eventually we drove within eyesight of it and we pointed to the place, I still don't know if he understood why we got out of the cab when we did. Inside the Citadel the architecture was nice but the show was stolen by the dioramas of different battles. They looked straight out of a highschool history project and were awesome! It showed them triumphantly winning all of the battles, although if my history is correct, it's been awhile since they've won any, especially against Israel, of which they have a piece of a jet wing in the museum with the Star of David on it. I'm thinking their lack of map reading skills could be the reason why they were devastated, couldn't find the Israelis! The best part of the Citadel was the uniform hall, Bill you'll enjoy this, they have Porta-Troops and you guessed it, their uniforms are brown!
We then visited the Islamic area of Cairo. We laugh in the face of Giardia and other microbial diseases as we have been eating the sketchiest of places. Sketchy, yes, tasty, definitely! After a quick lunch of pita, foul, chicken and green stuff (sorry Tender Branson, no recipes for you this time because I really don't know what it was) we were off to the Khan El-Khalili. I didn't know Betsy loved her scarves until now, she made me haggle for four of them! Anyway, they are pretty nice but four scarves, who wears all of those?!
One more stop in the whirl-wind tour, the Egyptian Museum. The museum is large and very interesting, it has so much stuff apparently they haven't found the time to categorize and tack information to all of it. In some parts of the museum, they have so much stuff you can barely squeeze though the statue of Amenhotep and Cheop's alabaster canoptic box. It's unfortunate because most of the items are out in the open, people are touching them and sticking their heads were they shouldn't be, I guess Egypt has so much stuff it's kind of a crap-shoot. Most of the stuff lacks any type of description, at least the King Tut displays, for the most part, had index cards with dates on them. We left the museum with out heads spinning for the over-whelming nature of it all, we didn't even go into a quarter of the upstairs rooms because it was all just too much.
On final thought, I know one place Betsy should go if we were ever to spit, Cairo because they LOVE her here! Not sure if it's the long legs or the blonde hair but one thing is for sure, they think I'm the luckiest man in the world! Even if they can't ready maps atleast they got that part right.
-Ryan
The next day we traveled out to the pyramids in Giza, but being the cheap-skates we are, we decided to try to take the bus instead of a taxi, yikes! It took about 30min to find the bus stop and to top it off the numerals were in arabic, which we cannot read. Luckily, the Egyptians we've met along the way have been very kind and assisted us along the way. If it weren't for the five different men we met in the various buses we took, I don't think it would have been successful. As we hopped off the final bus we started hoofing it West, thinking we'd find it eventually. Well, it practically hit us in the face, pretty hard to miss as they are HUGE! It was a pretty amazing site, if only we could get the camel peddlers to leave us alone so I could take a picture or two, man they poop a lot!
Speaking of poo, yesterday we went to the Citadel, well, tried to get to the Citadel... We flagged down a cab this time, thinking it would be quicker, and told him, Citadel. The Citadel, a fortress built in 1176, is a major, if not the second most important landmark in the Cairo area next to the pyramids. Cairo Citadel, large fortress situated on top of a huge hill in the middle of town, something you can see for miles! I kept saying Citadel with the idea that it will somehow sink into the cab driver's head, no such luck. He didn't have a clue and everyone we asked along the way didn't have a clue either, it was overly frustrating as he cris-crossed the Nile three times when we started on the correct side to begin with! I even had a map to show him as to where it was located. Eventually we drove within eyesight of it and we pointed to the place, I still don't know if he understood why we got out of the cab when we did. Inside the Citadel the architecture was nice but the show was stolen by the dioramas of different battles. They looked straight out of a highschool history project and were awesome! It showed them triumphantly winning all of the battles, although if my history is correct, it's been awhile since they've won any, especially against Israel, of which they have a piece of a jet wing in the museum with the Star of David on it. I'm thinking their lack of map reading skills could be the reason why they were devastated, couldn't find the Israelis! The best part of the Citadel was the uniform hall, Bill you'll enjoy this, they have Porta-Troops and you guessed it, their uniforms are brown!
We then visited the Islamic area of Cairo. We laugh in the face of Giardia and other microbial diseases as we have been eating the sketchiest of places. Sketchy, yes, tasty, definitely! After a quick lunch of pita, foul, chicken and green stuff (sorry Tender Branson, no recipes for you this time because I really don't know what it was) we were off to the Khan El-Khalili. I didn't know Betsy loved her scarves until now, she made me haggle for four of them! Anyway, they are pretty nice but four scarves, who wears all of those?!
One more stop in the whirl-wind tour, the Egyptian Museum. The museum is large and very interesting, it has so much stuff apparently they haven't found the time to categorize and tack information to all of it. In some parts of the museum, they have so much stuff you can barely squeeze though the statue of Amenhotep and Cheop's alabaster canoptic box. It's unfortunate because most of the items are out in the open, people are touching them and sticking their heads were they shouldn't be, I guess Egypt has so much stuff it's kind of a crap-shoot. Most of the stuff lacks any type of description, at least the King Tut displays, for the most part, had index cards with dates on them. We left the museum with out heads spinning for the over-whelming nature of it all, we didn't even go into a quarter of the upstairs rooms because it was all just too much.
On final thought, I know one place Betsy should go if we were ever to spit, Cairo because they LOVE her here! Not sure if it's the long legs or the blonde hair but one thing is for sure, they think I'm the luckiest man in the world! Even if they can't ready maps atleast they got that part right.
-Ryan
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