Wednesday, 11 January 2012

Day 4 - 10th January

Today we got up, showered and all that business, went for the complementary breakfast that the hotel provides then we for a walk back west where, the night before the markets had been.  Most of them were now gone.  Packed up as if they were christians being run out of town by the romans.  So anyhow we wandered around some more, several blocks here and several blocks there with Ethan trying to sit on the ground at every possible chance he could haha.  We seriously need to bring a fold out chair for him (Mental note to keep eye out for one).

We went into the Pantheon which was built about 25BC (Give or take a few years) and at the time it was a pagan temple, but now is one of the cornerstone temples for Christianity.  I wont go into the history of the place - you can just wiki it for the good stuff, but the pictures you see will not do it justice, it's a big marble-centric big ole room with sacred this and that's all over the place inside.  We spent quite some time in there and much to Ethan's dismay he was not allow to sit on the floor as it was 'forbidden' (So the signs said).  I chuckled to myself on that one.  hehe.

After that we wandered (actually I think I was following Jo's orders) in a different direction and we went over to the Trevi Fountain, which I am ashamed to say I had never heard of (but now have), and it too was not something you'd see every day (unless you had to go past it to get to work).  It was massive with flowing sculptures and water (and seagulls) everywhere.  I made a mental note at the time to google it and read about it.  I still haven't done that yet (too busy writing blogs).  There was this amazing shop behind the Trevi Fountain called Benetton where I spent a fe hundred Euro and am happy to say I am not wearing a blue jersey anymore.  In fact I am almost indistinguishable now as a tourist.  A bit more of a tan and I would have to do something very wrong to be noticied as a white boy from New Zealand. :)

After I got good looking, I mentally twisted Jo's arm to get us on a tour bus that went around Rome and it seems I was that good, that she had actually organised one several weeks beforehand.  So we found a place to jump on the bus and we did some sights around Rome with a little earpiece that told me all about the history of the locations that we were driving past at the time.  I have not pretty much forgotten everything I was told and will have to Google it in the future.

Later that night, I decided that since I had done such a good job of picking the first restaurant I would pick another.  Oh my god, we picked, like, the worst restaurant in Roma.  Holy crap, what a story for someone elses grandkids for me to tell.  In fact we jumped on TripAdvisor.com and we found that it ranked 3035th out of 3500 restaurants in Rome. HAHA!  It was all quite bad really.  I didn't think you could ruin Roast potatoes but I think they must have boiled them in Sunlight Soap or something... blech.  I only ate about 7 of them hehe.  The rest of our main was pretty forgettable as well.  Anyhow, I will now dwell on it.   For a real good laugh you should read the TripAdvisor comments about the restaurant. 

Here is the link -->>> L'Arcano (die die die)

Here endth our day, bit of a shame but we lived and learnt and I figure we might get a free bread or something about it if we tell another restaurant about it :-)

Day 3 - 9th January

So we caught the 1 hour 45 minute flight form Paris to Roma (Rome for you less smarty people), we disembarked and were sitting in the airport, about to leave, thinking about how to catch a taxi (the place was swarming with foreigners) and we were greeted by a man who looked like an elderly cousin/uncle.  His name was Claudio and offered us the services of his taxi.  He seemed cheerful enough so we took him up on his offer and after a quick chat of locations, we were on our way into Hotel Abruzzi right outside the Pantheon in Roma (Rome, remember?). 

I watch a lot of History channel and the last half of the trip form the airport into the hotel was almost like living on channel 73....  amazing!  So we disembarked from our taxi, we were standing directly outside the front door of the hotel and look at what we were in front of...

From our Hotel Window (WTF!)

Crazy!  And look at what our room view is like!

So we unpacked, looked out the window several more times and went out for a little food (we hadn't eaten since very early morning and it was now late afternoon.  I randomly picked a little restaurant close to the hotel, hoping that it wasn't a tourist trap restaurant, but we were very happy with the outcome.  Friendly service, lovely pasta, and a nice main (of which I can no longer remember).  It probably had something to do with the bottle of wine we washed down with it.  We left there in high spirits, thinking that if all the places where like that then this part of the trip was going to be hot stuff!  Later that night we wandered a few block west of our hotel around to were the Christmas markets were being held.  It was the last night of the year they were being held and it was more like a carnival/festival than some dreary old markets.  We wandered around the stalls avoiding the people trying to sell us their local goods/junk and generally had a top time!  Got back to the Hotel room and promptly fell asleep - about 8:30pm - haha! (we are so hardcore).

Day 2

Woke up today at 3:30am Paris time due to me falling asleep 12 hours earlier, and decided to lie there until 6 or 7am when I thought it might be cool to get up and not have Jo telling me off :-)  However, as fate would have it I fell asleep again at 10 minutes to 6.  Then slept another 2 hours for good measure.  Felt a lot better than I had for the past 2-3 days due to the flying, but still decided I need an extra supply of Panadols just in case. 
Rocked downstairs and found the local cafe/restaurant and let Jo order (I let Jo order/talk for everything, because if the local thinks we can speak french we don't get a slap - you know those storied of grumpy frenchies) and we had a delightful meal of coffee, omelettes and orange Juice.  However my cover was blown when I went to pay the bill when the waiter asked if I speak french and I had to say 'Non'.  Needless to say the conversation stopped there and we left the cafe - not sure if we are allowed back haha.

After that we decided to go for a walk (pretty much over to Starbucks for our second coffee in 30 minutes - to blast our bodies into wakeup mode) and about 20 minutes into the walk Jo decided we would stick to her schedule and go find the Museum of Paleontology.  It was quite a walk along the river Seine to find it, but I very much enjoyed it, as I quite enjoy walking anywhere new and looking at things I have never seen before (whether they be interesting or not).  Once we got to the museum we realised is was basically several museums all lumped together in one district.  There was even a museum of Scientific Documents!  Egad... that one would have to be saved for a rainy day. ;-)

Anyhow we found the Museum National D'Historie Naturalle, Grand Galerie De L'Evolution.  (Say the seven times real quick!)  We went inside this and bought ticket for the main museum and it's two exhibitions which were something about learning for kids (not bad for adults either) and the other was about spiders.  Anyhow, we went through there and that must have taken a good 5-6 hours.  We sat down a lot near the end of it and still missed approx one quarted of the exhibits I'd guess, plus you know how you do get tired and skip past a lot of things without reading them properly.  There was a rather large exhibit on the Narwhal which was very interesting due to the fact that it is the basis of the Unicorn legend.  I spent 15-20 minutes reading everything and Jo was extremely (not) interested when I tried to recite some of the best points to her... haha!  Oh well... maybe another time.

The walk back from the Museum was interesting as we got a bit lost and poor Jo was struggling to walk back due to her choice of footwear... luckily for her though there is a footwear specialist in ur next stop (Rome)... I mean how could there not be.... you know, the leather goods captial of the world and all! :-)  Anyhow, off for dinner in a hour or two... not sure where we are going but everywhere has been awesome so far!  Will update in a bit!

Sunday, 8 January 2012

Europe Trip! -- Day 1/Trip Proglogue

Before I start writing my small literary entry into the adventures of Matt, Jo and Ethan, I would just like to preface it with the information to the dear reader that we have had a lot to do to get us to this point (Day 1 at time of writing).

Aside from a the fact that both of our families seem to have the majority of their birthdays in November and December, we have also had Christmas to contend with.  Also to make life more busy in these months we have also both finished up our respective jobs and got new ones.  Then we have packed up and shifted from the rainy traffic ridden shores of Auckland to the golden paved roads of Hamilton.  So after all of that we have somehow saved and planned for a trip across several countries together in Europe of which we have just started.

About 1 weeks ago today the movers came and shifted all the contents of the house and moved them to Hamilton, where Jo and I have spent most of this week, unpacking and setting up the house.  A tireless job that always seems to catch you working non stop without breaks and late into the evenings.  So on Wednesday night we figured we had done about 95% of the unpacking and sorting and so piled everything we needed for our holiday into the car and drove the 1 hour and 45 minute trip to Auckland to Jo, parents for the night.

The next morning we were into the car again at 9am and drove to Auckland Airport where we caught an 11am flight to Christchurch.  We then had a 4pm flight from Christchurch to Kuala Lumpur.  Luckily there we no earthquakes in Christchurch for the few hours that we where there (I know it was playing Jo's mind).  We got to KL at about 4am NZ time (due to the delayed departure of our Christhchurch flight because of the extra food that they needed to load onto the flight - I reckon it's because someone made a booking error and only noted that I was boarding this specific flight when I turned up on the day).

Getting to Kuala Lumpur meant that by this time we had been on the proverbial road now for 19 hours. At 6am NZTime we departed KL for Paris, and we landed in Paris at 8am NZ Time and where in our hotel by sometime between 9 and 9:30am.

Shortly after we checked in and showered (yah for getting rid of 36 hours of traveling yuckiness), we went for a quick walk which turned into several hours (Jo was rather proud of showing me around her favourite city.  We went to and into Notre Dame, across the Seine river (Aka Wanganui River) and a bit of a trip across to the gates of the Louvre.  On the way back we decided to cross a bridge that from a distance it looked like the sides of it where gold plated.  It in fact turned out to be this bridge --> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pont_des_Arts.  It was pretty nifty, making us think it was a bit like the bridges and fences around New Zealand that get covered with other type of things (i.e. bra's/bikes).  Anyhow we walked back (quite a walk for us novice walkers) and we got back to the hotel room where I typed up this little ditty.  I then decided to lie down at 3pm for an hour or two's kip, and woke up at 8:30pm, to find that everyone else had fallen asleep and so we called it a day... everyone must have pretty exhausted for not sleeping for basically two days... haha!

Monday, 9 August 2010

Mid Winter Post

Had another good weekend!  Actually I didn't do much at all.  Lazed around the house for most of it, not allowed to play WoW as have a bit of a medical condition limiting my mouse usage...  Damn Razer Naga mouse has gone in the 'spare parts' bag now as it completely wrecked my hand... oh well 1 week of not using a mouse (temporariliy left handed mouse user at the moment) and i am feeling a little less pain which is a good thing.

So I downloaded a new game "High Stakes On The Vegas" and played that for several hours.  It's good, only needs you to hit the x button on the controller once every 30 seconds or so :-)  So many nutters playing online poker...  You can tell the crazy ones, because you don't play for real money.  They log into teh table and go 'all in' (bet all their money in one go) and generally lose it.  But it screws up your game and concentration somewhat :-)


Anyhow got to work this morning and was doing the pre-work browse on Facebook and noticed several people updating entries with activities they did over the weekend but no pics (or very little pics) to show - boo!  C'mon people updates please!

Finances are looking a bit better nowadays after the recent move, and am now saving up for another bike to commute to work with, (after my last one got stolen), but is taking a while due to paying off credit card and saving for France '11!  More on that in a future post!

Cheers
Matt

Monday, 9 February 2009

Day 1 (and 36 years)

So ok, I turned 36 recently. I know, I know, I'm getting old. But quite frankly I don't feel it. I've heard a few people say that they felt like a switch was turned on when they hit 40, and they just felt old all of a sudden. Well that means I've got 4 years to go before I get to prove that theory wrong! haha!

So what did you do for your birthday Mr. Scott I hear you ask. Well I actually was recovering from a headache from the night before. I Went out for a bit of poker night and thought that I wouldn't drink too much, and I would have a nice clear head the next day. Well as it turns out I was weak and someone had Jim Beam Gold label... that was all that was required. I drunk probably half the bottle and basically held consciousness long enough to lose all my chips and then pass out at the table. So yeh, Sunday was a bit rough really, but I got through ok :-)

On another note, I've also decided to change my training/exercise routine around a bit. Luckily for me, work asked us if anyone wanted to start a little later at 9am and finish at 5:30pm. I snapped this opportunity up and now I get and extra hour in the mornings to do my cardio and then I do my weights in the evening. I've now been twice so far and I am enjoying it a lot. There's always that 'dread' factor when you know you have at least 2 hours of bloody hard sweat and tears to go at the gym and the temptation to not go gets very strong sometimes. At least now in the evenings after a hard day of writing blogs, er I mean work, I know I only have an hour and a bit of weightlifting to do when I get there... no afternoon cardio - hallelujah! Also, it seems a good run in the morning is a good way to wake yourself up. At least I don't feel too bad... yet!

PS Saw another idiot on his bike the other day with half a tyre pumped up. Idiot. I felt my pulse kick up another notch as soon as I saw him. Bloody muppet.

Thursday, 29 January 2009

Pump it like you should!

So ok, I've been meaning to have a little blog tantrum about this for several weeks now. Cyclists with half flat tires. oh my god, just even tryign to type those words makes my blood boil... I want to capitalise the words and make the font twice as big... the idiots!

Now take it from me. I've cycled for several years (commuting about 17kms to and from work) and I think I've got a little knowledge on the subject, at least enough to have a bit of a rant! When I first started cycling, I had the odd semi-flat tyre, and I thought to myself that it was good because it made to cycle harder and would make me stronger (going by the 'what doesn't kill you can only make you stronger' theory). How stupid can you be!?! That's just crazy talk! All it does, is make you tired, wreck your bike tyres/rims and makes cycling about as fun as publicly working for Telecom... pfft it's for the birds mate, let me tell you! (Can I get an AHEM!)

But the crazy thing is that I see EASILY more than 50% of cyclists with mountain-type bikes cycling around with these half-flat tires... I swear I just want to run out and grab a hold of these people and shake them like a new born child! PUMP YOUR TIRES UP!!! 50PSI at least! Christ if I, (at a peak weight,) at over 105kg and cycle on 50 PSI tires than so can half of those skinny little cycly type people... Just sort it out and save me having a coronary... please!

Now, I've been meaning to type that up for several days now... almost several weeks. The only thing stopping me was that I had nothing else to blog about (I'm a 2 subject blog man these days) and I feel a bit inadequate if I didn't have something else to chat about.

Anyhow, so last night I was walking home, feeling rather tired and bloated from the quiz night at the pub the night before (lack of sleep and loads of salty chips will do that to you) and I was thinking about how to get out of going to the gym that night when my prayers were answered for me. 2 cars, and 2 women. That's how it started. Then we add an intersection and also a rush hour. Too good. So yeh ofcourse there was an accident and it happened about 3 metres away from me just as I was crossing the road. I was in no real danger, but I had to (I was the only pedestrian there and you know that no one else was going to get out of their cars) run over and check on the drivers. They were both ok - one was a bit shocked and the other had no insurance. The cops turned up and as I was the witness I was interviewed last and was generally made to hang around getting stared out by all the other bypassing motorists (I loved the attention!) In the end the crowd concisted of, 3 police, 2 motorists, 1 father, 1 witness (me) and a GODDAMMED mosquito?!!?!? I swear to god, a damn mosquito bit me on the leg somewhere in all that... how the hell did that happen. Jihad on mosquitos please! I mean surely there must be mossies in Iraq or some shit - and surely that West Nile Virus must have taken down a few taliban's by now, so they should declare war on those bastards! Those damn mossies... lets see them play chicken against a Boein 747 and see how tough they are then!

Anyhow, everyone was ok, and I got home late so I missed my gym night and got to relax on the couch. Life pretty good. Although I still think Obama should eradicate mosquitos and create a law for half flat bike tires and have the death penaly as the standard penaly for it :-)

Toodles.