On plane to Toronto

Train to Calais took ~3 hr (missed the direct train, had to take a regional train partway). In Calais, had to walk a long way to the ferry...in the docks, kinda like walking to the airport. Also ferry was expensive. P&O only, rate was more expensive than taking a motorcycle onto SeaFrance. Why is that? Why no foot passengers on SeaFrance? Was rather annoyed. Hung out for ~1 hr waiting for next boat (saw a pinball machine that only took francs...they must keep some around as tokens...).

Boat was big. Like a cruise ship inside. Long trip, 2-3 hr, I think. Seagulls flying around outside, seem to come to a standstill mid-air with the wind. Also lots of wind at the railings...must be pushed up by the sides of the boat. Inside, 2 girls going around giving massages. Some guys w/ very thick accents sitting behind us.

At Dover, walked to train station, took an expensive train into London (also slow). And engineering works forced us onto an even longer train. Got into London ~8 or 9, which is late for us. For dinner, we had fish + chips + spinach pie at a place by the South Kensington subway station.

Finally we got to the hostel. Very nice Indian man at reception. Kinda creepy how he went out of his way to call me by my first name. Also we displaced a dude.

---

Sunday - breakfast at a Russian cafe - eggs sunny side up, English bacon (which is different; more like really salted ham), sausage (very bland, maybe lots of filler, little fat), baked beans, and toast w/ lots of butter. Woman at next table was asking her friend to find her an Italian aristocrat husband who would take her to live in Rome.

Walked through a park (Kensington?) where we saw boats and birds. A guy was throwing bread at the birds; there were these small birds who would grab it and run off, chased by pigeons (who were larger). The little birds were quite fast, though, so they were pretty good at evading the pigeons. Eventually they'd drop the breads or the pigeons would lose interest. Very funny - almost cartoon-like - to watch the chase. We saw one snatch a bit of bread out from a pigeon's beak.

Eventually the crows (which had been hanging out at the periphery) came in, and the other birds all yielded to them - they'd leak well away (out of pecking range). The crows would pick up lots of bread, carry it away a bit, and eat undisturbed. Later we also saw them dipping the bread into water.

There were old guys racing R/C sailboats. Also big swans. We saw one standing out of the water, preening. We tried to inch closer to pet it but it saw through what we were doing and inched away itself. It also honked menacingly.

On the street we saw a cooing pigeon that followed another pigeon into the street, only to then take off flying when a car came. It even checked for traffic before entering, but it must have decided that it was worth it.

After the park we went to Camden market. We had to take the bus b/c of subway closures due to engineering work. Very big street market - stalls selling various clothing + accessories, T-shirts w/ witty slogans, food. Also found a Sainsbury's, where we bought a trifle and a fruit+barley drink.

Took subway + RER to Greenwich, which took a long time. Also, the tagging-off points were not obvious. Got some mulled wine (not as good as we'd had at Columbae...this was not well spiced).

Ate our trifle and drink (turned out to be a concentrate, and that aspartame falls through a loophole of "no added sugar" and "no artificial colours or flavour"), then went to observatory - saw an exhibit on the longitude problem, including (models?) Harrison's H1-H3.

A replica of that would be a cool project to make. Or maybe a simpler system, where the pendulum drives the wheel through a ratchet system. Then use coils to drive pendulum, and quartz regulator.

Anyways, ironically, that Sunday was the change to summer time, so the day ended, unexpectedly, one hour early, and we couldn't visit any more museums (pity, too, because the museums in Greenwhich are free). On the way back to station, stopped at a restaurant; had a roast beef thing (w/ Yorkshire pudding?) and a steak + kidney pie.

Saw Westminster cathedral (only the bottom part is lit & marbled, the top is just brick and unlit, which almost has the effect SC was talking about: not being able to see the top). Walked around a bit, saw the Soho area (wannabe Times Square), had a "gooey" McFlurry + Cadbury cream, went back to the hostel, and crashed.

---

This morning: instant food adventure, failed Oyster card ploy (wanted to leave w/ a negative balance, but need £1.30 on the card to get through the entrance gates).

Falafel & winning & the awesome map

(by SquishyCat)

That prolly should be in the opposite order. Sitting at the train station now (Gare du Nord) waiting for train to Calais since the 10am one was full. There's a random guy talking to the lady next to me (we are in the waiting area with the heat lamps (which make me feel lizard-like; or mabye like hobos around a trash can fire)). Now she has invited him to sit down, apparently on top of me. There are metal things on the bench to deter people from sleeping on them, and is now becoming an incentive to desist sitting. Squish. Oh good, he's gotten up to be chivalrous to some old ladies and offered them my seat. I expand back.

Anyway, the awesome map was acquired at the hostel we stayed at the first night, and has attractions & metro map on it. It looks to be printed by a galerie (mall, prolly), which we will not visit. But it has many desirable characteristics of a temporary travel map, vis.: light, comprehensive, w/ lots of little streets labeled, durable, not too large/awkward so we can look at it in the street.

Winning on metro tickets:
(by FuzzyFish)
We bought a zone 1 day pass, which doesn't include Versailles, but the gate only checked at the start of the outbound leg and the end of the inbound leg, and both those points were in zone 1, so we got a free ride into Versailles. Yay!

We're on the 1st car from the locomotive; can hear the engine noise whenever it's on (sometimes it pulses on/off, when coasting at low speed). Passed a whole field of high-tension power lines; the supports look like squat monsters fading into the foggy distance. Some really low clouds; very distinct wispiness.

Falafel. Much bigger, fresh-fried balls, not hard or as dense as other falafel we've had. Too bad Marc's store was closed. Possibly condemned by health board; will have to translate this sign (update: sign just says certified kosher). But we got some from another store (probably gentile-owned; was open 7 days). Lots of filling. Bottom was red cabbage and onion, though...stained my jeans, and I wish it'd been more mixed in w/ the rest. Maybe I should have mixed it. Were going to go back to the French restaurant for foix gras + egg dish, but got lazy. Also forgot to get train reservation, which was not great.

Oh - at train station, saw 2 pigeons, 1 missing a foot and the other missing some toes. Why? How?

Paris and Versailles

More cute Germans in the hostel.

Sacred Heart - classical design, reminiscent of an Escher drawing. Mondrian stained glass. More people w/ friendship bracelets. Musicians in subway, 10-strong choir, with instruments. Very impressive.

Louvre. Egypt exhibit. Art for everyday enjoyment, or patrons, or Church, vs. modern art for the artistic elite (museums, snobs, etc.). Wedding feast at Cana. Mona Lisa. What makes art famous? Gravity seemed especially strong.

Went to Notre Dame afterwards. Raining as we walked, but cleared. ND not as cool as other cathedrals, but the mass (w/ organ, choir, & smoke) was very cool. Like some ritual out of a movie. The lighting was very dramatic and very clean. Made you feel religious, not cultlike despite the old white men chanting in robes. Production values (e.g. cathedral) helped. Ceiling of cathedral must have been dark in original use (no electric floodlights) - couldn't see top, even in day? Would seem to stretch to infinity.

Marching band and roller skaters outside. Weird. Walked along canal/river, saw a barge, a dog interested in ducks. Bastile - just a pole??

Dinner: have a business card. SC probably wrote more about it. €37. Starter: salad w/ the dressing, fried cheese things, like triangular fried egg rolls filled w/ mild cheese. My salmon had leeks and a "red fruit" sauce that reminded SC of rubbing alcohol, but I found quite agreeable. SC had steak (Boucher) w/ Roquefort cheese sauce and French fries (very traditional, apparently), then we had creme brulee, very nice.

Then back, very tired. Internet. Connection problems - but why? Maybe need to wait for roaming IP...it was trouble getting a valid IP.

---

Big breakfast this morning. Coffee was good - think it inhibited the sniffling. Swiped some jam. Went to catacombs, interesting combination of mining history (w/ cave-ins) and ossuary. A lot of bones. Wow. Stacked-up walls of femurs and skulls, w/ a mess of other bones behind it. Various death-related poems. Can see how Hamlet might have just found a skull lying on the ground. Also the miners' sculptures: not Michelangelo, but nice still.


Bought a bread. Oh - figured out a way to make backpack thinner: tie front pocket zipper pull to top loop: pulls the front up and in, makes pack more tear-drop shaped, less bulky. Nice. On train now to Versailles. Passing through Paris suburbs. Understand Paris metro zone system and train schedule now.


Eat bread w/ hands, but rice w/ chopsticks. Wonder if it has an effect on spread of disease...


---


Huge line to buy tickets at Versailles. €30. Ticket people very helpful w.r.t asking age + nationality for free admission. Lots of gilded gold, many rooms: drawing-room, chamber, antechamber(s), guard room. And then the same for the dauphin/dauphine. King's favorism of French classicism (Roman gods) over Italian baroque (paintings of Jesus et al.) in paintings...lots of paintings of Venus, Mars, Mercury, Apollo, Diana, Jupiter. King/Queen had separate bedchambers. Audioguide (which was compulsory; how odd) mentioned the furniture-makers, which SC thought odd.


Went to the garden. Saw very cute black birds with white wingtips, flying around very lightly; highly agile w/ little effort. Talked about what we'd put in a palace if we were king: waterfalls, aviaries, aquaria, the Augustus dining room, glass floors, moats, water-filled walls. Thought the sculpted bushes were kinda silly...

Paris

French keyboards, WTF? a <--> q ?!?

rain. cool cathedral (Sacre Couer). statue stabbing his horse (outside). Self destruct! cleaner looking decor.

rain. walked to metro, to louvre. actually, mall (the carrousel du louvre). Find louvre entrance, actually wait in line to get through security before FF suggests lunch at the food court (we brought the salami bread, cheese, nougat, but no water since stuff floating in the tap water from prev. night's hostel). so we go back. No tables, so I sit at a clear spot w/ no chair, which is awkward. I get up, find a new spot, find a table. FF doesn't want to sit though--he suggests going outside & getting a drink at a fountain (original plan = eat our food, buy a drink, but can tell it'll be expensive). I am puzzled at this but we head outside. It's raining. No fountains, since it's not Italy. Can get a bottle of soda for €3, which FF vetoes. I am annoyed; now he says we should do what I want, which is either our original plan (food court + drink) or the museum. (I was also anxious about the time since there were other things (catacombs) I wanted to see after louvre, but I knew the louvre would take a long time). Also wet. went to go see outside of louvre (the ridiculous pyramids) then went back to standing in line to get into louvre. Annoyed.

Louvre: ancient egyptian rooms. Extremely large & well-preserved collection (scribe's tomb. Preserved papyrus scrolls w/ writing. 3000 year old bread and fruits!) Very food/food acquisition oriented tombs (pictures of overseeing food gathering, food offerings, menu on wall carving. Statues of people holding meat selections (fancier than in life selections for normal ppl).) Really fancy jewlery & pottery. Styles still good today (lots of gold), very good workmanship, clean lines, could get really small pendants (v. cute!).

Mummified cats! And fishes! wtf! Also a crocodile, and a real mummy. Must feel awkward that this guy is on display at a museum. But I suppose when you're don using it your body becomes a piece of nature and free for use.

Headless victory unearthed in 1800's. Still impressive. Paintings. Mona lisa -> v. small. essence of smiling, play on words.

Statues. Hermaphrodite = fil of Aphrodite + Hermes. Interesting.

FF tired. leave at 4:30 ish, to Notre Dame cathedral. Blocky, which was unexpected; also smaller. Service started while we were inside (beginning announced by clanging.) Singing, organ, everyone signs. repeat. Smoke. V. picturesque, esp. w/ stained glass, high ceilings, columns and angel statues. Pretty cool but musically not that interesting--just good for the space and getting atmosphere.

To bastille. Outside Notre dame 8-person band (amateur) and rollerbladers doing wiggly-tricks.

Wander around. Find bastille. Not interesting (a tower/pole? Isn't there supposed to be a prison?)

Go back to hostel, get recommendation for a place for dinner, where we are translated the menu. Steak and salmon. Salad dressing: tastes like vinegar w/ memories of sushi saunce (hint of nori, horseradish). Sweet, sour. V. mild. Looks like a vinagrette. When asked we're told goat cheese wrapped in leaves from N. Africa (Chinese use it too--"Name"?). Also, finally get water. Leeks in cheese. Cheese sauce for steak. Generally, cheese. Good stuff. fries.

Creme Brulee. Not too thick. Burnt bitter cuts, but not that sweet anyway.

Back to hostel. Internet.

Update: Snoring girl. No sheets. What is with French shower drains?

On train from Strasbourg - Paris

TGV, which I've heard much about. Remember hearing about it when I was little, seemed cool and exotic. Thought it was maglev, though (where can I find one of those to ride?). Associations with the Concorde SST. Am on it now; not quite as cool. Maybe this isn't the TGV. Also there is this incessant squeaking from behind me. Occasionally it seems to abate, but the promise of silence only draws attention to the inevitable return of the squeaking.

Painted clouds in the sky, light of the sun bursting out from behind one. Like on the Michelangelo Creation. Or the ceiling of the Venetian; I can't decide. All those little towns on rolling hills. We also saw them in Switzerland (on the Lausanne-Bern line, or maybe it was the Martigny-Lausanne). Definitely not the Rhone leg...no rolling hills there. Very different from the American countryside. I think. Haven't really seen the American countryside, I guess I imagine it's like Gilroy: factory farms and outlet malls. I may be wrong...

Also, the roads. Even more so in Switzerland. Turns and hills and a scenic countryside. Not a straight road into the horizon, dust and desolation on either side. This is where BMW ads come from. And the hills (again, this was more true in Switzerland) - erosion takes away the bottom, but a skin of grass roots remain, holding together the surface. A cool effect. Green rolling hills, like the XP wallpaper. Also, now I know what it means for hills to roll...

Dude just stood up and fixed the squeaking. Popped a ceiling panel back into place and the squeaking stopped. Awesome.

Trees with poofs! What are they? Nests?
update: It's mistletoe! A parasitic plant that grows in poofs on trees.

Strasbourg


Had some pastries (coffee eclair, pain au chocolat, fougasse provencal); one bakery was very popular, nonstop customers and lots of awards. Walked a bit, saw swans swimming swiftly upstream (actually they were quite slow, it being upstream and all; I just wanted the alliteration). Saw Cruella deVille houses.

Checked out of hotel, dropped bag off at train station (not as well labeled as in Switzerland), got tickets, took tram towards cathedral, walked along canal (saw 2 swans...the same ones?). Tried to get one interested in my camera, but the autofocus sound scared him off.

Cathedral was very different - lots of pointy bits, and that fractal ornamentation that gives it a very busy, cluttered look. Also it's this single color of ochre that's not too appealing. Cathedral closed, decided to get lunch...found a restaurant recommended by the bulletin board outside hotel, but decided it was too upscale for us (also, didn't want to pay premium for its location). So wandered in a circle, came back, visited cathedral, went up, ate lunch at a really fancy place (also on that same list). Went to "petite France", saw a canal lock - which I'd read about but had never seen until then, which was cool, then went to an Internet bar and barely made the train.

Train from Strasberg -> Paris EST

Strasberg:

Cathedral. Pointy. Different than others we've seen--lots of spiral-y bits and embellishments (more than usual?). Temp gradient: could feel when walk in, cold. Dark, since windows stained. Wonder if way to get stained windows with more finessed paintings? FF said the height was cheating b/c the towers were open to the air. We climbed up inside them and it was much nicer, though.

Clock in the corner (giant overgrown cookoo clock) like a 19th century amazement (like that duck, or the chess Turk.). Went up. View was nice but not as cool as I thought (not get to see the spirals up close). On top, could see the roofs of French buildings--like in the cartoons! And as exaggerated and leaning! So funny!

Lunch @ fancy place across from cathedral. €19.50 each, and was a nice surprise after all the ridiculously expensive dinky Milan/Venice meals. Very big portions (herring salad = very good, salty, but texture like raw: how to make?) and pig knuckle bone in sauce like in Chinese restaurants. So full.

Sunshine after.

Swiss Train Adventure

Morel-Visp, looked around a bit.

Visp-Sion, climbed a giant hill through a very narrow path through tiny alleyways and backyards (saw an angry cat!) to a castle. Didn't go in, but had a picnic lunch on a very picturesque hill. Would be awesome if we had such a hill where we lived. Also was cool b/c there were these terraces of flat ground, breaking up the space into smaller areas.

Sion-Martigny, was going to take a train (a funicular!) up to Lac d'Emosson, but decided it would take too long.
Martigny-Lausanne, walked to the lake (swans!), found free wifi, took an honor code subway back. Bought wurst salad, sammich, and bread at Coop Pronto.

Lausanne-Bern, Bern-Basel.
Basel: train station had a Swiss side & FRench side. Swiss side: 20+ platforms, shops, cafes, lots of people, clean. Bought a water and a Swiss soft drink (carbonated milk serum, yum...). French side: 4 platforms (numbered 30 to 35 to make it seem like more), just a long waiting hall and some benches outside, deserted, dead quiet.

Basel-Strasbourg. Directions worked; got the last room ("€63 normally, but I'll let you have it for €50").

Brig

Got in pretty late; bratwurst + spaghetti - expensive, but portions were huge (at least by Italian standards)

Next day: walked around town. Very clean, very quiet, no people. Had various pastries: croissant thing, a birnen strudel (what is a birnen?), and a ham strudel. Went to castle (Stockalperpalast) - pretty garden. Missed train due to confusion over location of platform 11 (it's actually across the street from the train station, and in the opposite direction of platform 9).

Went to see river. Interesting color. Saw some cool beetles. Also a weird swing. Bike path to Morel and Visp; probably rideable (in terms of distance). Would be cool to bike along the Rhone (downhill, ideally). Got some bread (weissbrot, 1/2 kg) and a birnen (turns out it's a pear). Interesting checkout method, which we've learned is standard around here: weigh it yourself and get a ticket.

Train to Morel, cable car up to Riederalp (33 CHF/person). Saw an awesome waterfall on the way up, and a mountain goat. Actually quite surprised to see it full of snow, despite all the people we saw with skis on the way up. Should've picked up on that hint. Riederalp is a giant ski resort (quite different from U.S. ski resorts).

Our shoes aren't great for the snow. It looks like skis are the primary form of transportation. I turned down a ski rental, though, because we weren't there for the skiing. We took a ski lift up (everybody had skis), and at the top (Moosfluh) there wasn't really a great view...just like the top of a ski lift. I didn't see the glacier, and there was a sign that indicated the panoramic view was down this ski trail. I began really regretting not taking the chance with the skis. Felt really bad about ruining our chance to go skiing in the Swiss Alps, and felt lied to by the Internet and the ticket counter (both of which said it was walkable).

But it turned out okay. We found the view point (saw the glacier), then found the hiking path. We didn't have the right shoes (they got thoroughly soaked), but it was still awesome. We ate our weissbrot and the salami from Florence. The walking path is pretty packed down, but if you stray off it, the snow collapses under you and you go down to your knees in snow. We hiked from Moosfluh to Hohfluh, then went back to the station.

Hiked up a giant hill to check in, found out that we got a free upgrade, said hi to a cat, and everything was great! Had a Swiss supermarket adventure (coop). Awesome dinner, and we had leftovers. Got nail clippers, which had been irking me greatly.

Venice and Milan

Venice, day 2

walked a lot

changed hostels - new girls say "ecch"

candied oranges dipped in chocolate

pastries

 - puff (spumoni) - sugar, very good

 - torrone - nougat - dense, expensive, but really good

 - another pastry, powdered sugar, chocolate, also good

lunch

 - gnocchi (chewy larva), stewed meats, 2 baskets of bread.

 - cheap wine by the glass

boat adventure

Piazza San Marco

 - took some bread from lunch

 - fed to the pigeons

   - one landed on my shoulder, looked at me

   - little girl putting seeds in her brother's hair

      to get pigeons to land on his head

cafe, wrote this down

Venice, day 2, continued

how/why was Venice built?

SC has a cold headache

trash can on fire

beggar at the church - tricked SC

acoustics of cathedral

 - descriptions of "cathedral-like"

ate at fancy restaurant

 - Campari soda - as bad as it sounds

 - spaghetti marinara, w/ seafood.

   - okay but not stellar (not like St. Michael's Alley)

then came back and crashed. Talked to guy from Holland

 - dude first traveled alone @ 16, in U.S.

 - traveled through Eastern Europe: no tourism there

Problems w/ America as identified by people on my travels:

 - abortion

    - pastor (killing babies) and Irish guy (moral hazard)

 - 3 strikes policy (German kids) - cruel and unual

 - high cost of education at college level - Dutch guy

Milan

pigeons everywhere!

Mercedes ad, w/ the fish

Duomo - very tall; compare to blimp hangar?

 - find chronology of cathedrals vs. height

lots of walking, in circles; stupid map

 - food: rice & stuff, fried, looks like wou tou

design museum (Triennale)

 - but design museum was closed (too bad!)

 - materials exhibit was cool

   - translucent concrete

 - green buildings, but all in Italian (no English) so not so cool

   - Linked Hybrid (Pechino?, China). Li Hu, Pop. Science award

   - Manitoba Hydro Place; Winnepeg, Canada

   - ACROS, Fukuoka

   - KFW, Frankfurt

   - Barcelona central park, J. Nouvel

more of just a city, unlike Rome, Florence, Venice

 - could have been any city

missed out on Last Supper, daVinci stuff at Science & Technology

also missed out on the aquarium (one of the oldest in world)

Florence and Venice

Today we spent the day in Florence and are now staying in a hostel in Venice.
The trains were quite easy, very convenient, and cheap enough by our standards (though apparently not by German student standards, who took a 10-hour regional train rather than the 3-hour inter-city express).
belt adventure - Sze has plans to wear it like a scarf. Because her neck gets cold more often than her midsection.
harpsichords
Some bullet points, for time:
Florence
olives, from market. Also salami.
belt adventure
Duomo
 - the view from the top - courtyards are nice
Barilla at supermarket
David
 - room of naked female statues (plaster)

Venice
hostel Venice Fish
 - cool house
- Dinner pasta (pomodoro + sale), pepper pesto
- German kids

SC's thoughts on Rome

Yesterday was fun. i guess you have to start somewhere.

On the train now. The countryside is a bit like MO, a bit like CA. Only insofar as therea re lots of farms, I guess, and the number of deciduous trees are like the MO forests. The countryside looks at once poorer and more industrialized than the state's (Those of). Corrogated cardboard huts things, but also the sheer influence of people on every inch.

not looking to type since the train is making me dizzy. Will flip over and face the right way soon.

anyway, yesterday. (Why are there fflieds of grasss? Does someone mow them? )

Flipped over. Anyway, yesterday. Well, I guessI should startat the beginningn. Went to the ancient rome stuff early yesterday. The coloseum, which was less impressive than I thought it would be. There aren't a lot of things of interest in there, I guess.

Als=ways there are little things that remind you of movies in europe...but Europe isn't really like the movies. Unless you see the sort of movie that doesn't try to make it look romantic or whatever. I dunno. Old, which means not as nice, in some ways, grungy. Sort of third world-y in that sense. But then everything is clean. I guess the grungy thing might have been just a city thing. It was a very clean city, but there was more trash around than in the states, in out of the way places. And the traffic!~ Rule of law is not a sstrong as I thought it would be. I guess the gov't is more of a subtle presence.

The ruins. We were walking around the palatine. i gueally ony liked the end of it, with the ruins of columns strwn everywhere.

Vertigo lurking in the sway of the car. The train is going very fast. Glad i didn't eat very much. BTW, mcDonalds in Italy is not that different from McD's in the states, but then again, I guess the people aren't that different so they dont have to try very hard.

Anyway. Right. Decadant. two thousand year old giant blocks, carved, all lying around. Not being gaurded, could go and sit on them, And so very elaborately carved. very, very pretty. And the columns are huge! Everything was really tall. Except for the short walls, i guess.

then really good pasta. there was the pesto pasta, and then the next day there was the linguine with Porchino muchrooms, which was excellent. Need to get those when we get back. everything was really filling. I guess it's teh cheese.

couldn't find the hostels when we were looking on the first day. A bit weird, we thought. Anyway, there were no signs. With the night coming on, and us in a sketchy neighborhood. ended up in chinatown (less sketchy0 and got a really nice room for very expensive. Much much happier when we found the hostel the second day

Which we did by the Vatican city. Which we only saw little parts of, or else it is very small. there was this circular thing in front of St. Peter's basilica (San Piedro) also, John is giovanni. sounds so muhc uglier in english. Anyway.

saw the sculpture by Michelangelo in the basilica. the face. so sad. It was 9presumably0 Mary Magdalene holding the dead body of christ, and she was looking down at him. Her expression was so amazing. so profoundly sad. i have never seen someone that sad before. the sign said that she was also 'longing" and "hopeful", but I couldn't see that. Just deep sorrow.

let's see. Ate outside at some place, where we had mediocre pizza and the really good porchini mushroom pasta. It was cold. Drank a L of water between us.

everyone is so stylish. Skinny pants are definitely in, and they are skinny skinny. Also boos. Everyone has boots. And the jackets! Very pretty, and not poofy or shape deforming at all. I guess I can't tell if it's a italy thing or just a city thing, since I don't go to the city that often, but I don't remember people in SF quite that stype conscious. Or maybe it's just a different style. A very punk-sexy, streetwear-runway style. the stuff in magazines.

Anyway, the end of that story is that I felt dumb in my giant blue poofy jacket. until my left leg (first it was the heel, then the knee, and then my hip started going) started stabbing my nervous system with scissors. Then it was just painful. Made it to the crazy random fountain anwyay, but it was not the most pleasant thing.

On the way, we passed through these really tiny, cue little streets where there were tiny boutiques selling random things, in a this-is-a-store-I-own-it-and-work-it-like-two-centuries-ago kind of way, but fancy and stylish. cobble stones Not the best on the knees. put weird pressure on things.

the pantheon. on the way there. huge ancient roman facade, with the columns and the solid angles and everything white and marble, imposing. ridiculously, inside was a basilica, where they were having service, so we couldn't go in. so soso weird.

The tibetian llama event at the angry-fish fountain (which was less impressive than it could have been, since it was wrapped in plasic; renovation, i guess). But then the other fountain, the one growing out of the building, with the horse things and the dude. Very cool. Everything had pont max written on it, with the pope who did it. i guess when you have lot of free spending money that's what you do. Build random elaborate fountains fo rthe public. It seems like a waste, but then, that's what is left, so maybe it wasn't.

Leg hurt, so went back to the hostel, where I prompty shut myself down. slept until 4am (starting at 6pm ish: i am probably psuedo-sick), upon which i lay in bed for another hour or so, dreamily wandering around my head, enjoying the down comforter like a good shower.

Had one of those recurring dreams last night. As in, the first time I've had it in a while, but I know i've had it before. can't my head come up with anything better than reruns? It was the one about...and now I can't remember. Anyway, it's one of the ones that I know the ending to (I don't remember who I am...i think i'm some sort of African man? And the ending is tragic; there is death involved.) i should have written it down. but it wasn't a really good one, or I would have (at least, tried).

Am now on the train, and still hungry 9now that the motion sickness has been successfully kept at bay for a while. it's about 11am, so i think we must be there soon? left the station at 9:45, only supposed to be an hour and a bit ride.

Over, out.

On the train from Rome to Florence

Met some interesting people last night. SC was sleeping off a knee injury and I decided to hang around the hostel common room. First I met a guy from Ireland (rather, when I asked him where he was from, he said "I'm Irish").

SC says, "cows". We are passing through the Italian countryside.

I talked to the Irish guy a bit, he showed me his sketches (he is starting to draw and has filled a sketchbook so far), and I learned that he is 26, came to Rome about a month ago looking for work, and is sketching things. Also that he wishes he could go take a train around the States and end up in California. He asked if I could find him a job in San Francisco, and whether you could surf in San Francisco.

SC says, "sheep." This train ride is a lot more scenic than the Caltrain.

The Irish guy left to use the shower and an older guy came in. We started talking, and he turned out to be a pastor from Los Angeles who came to Rome because "Obama is killing babies" (by allowing the government to pay for abortions). Later the Irish guy came back, and between his ADD and the pastor's moralizing, it was a very awkward conversation indeed.

This train is going really fast. Also it reminds me of that Chemical Brothers music video. Star Guitar, I think. Which reminds me - it would have been good to bring earbud headphones, especially for those audio tours.

Eventually our conversation turned to showing each other YouTube videos. The Irish guy showed us some poems by J.W. Waterhouse that he liked, and the pastor showed us a video of him shouting down Obama at a rally in Massachusetts. He also had videos of him preaching on the Capitol steps. And then we learned that his reason for coming to Rome was to convince the Pope to excommunicate Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden, and that he'd been escorted out of St. Peter's square a few days ago when he started shouting at the Pope.

So, yeah. I admire his guts for attempting that--exercising your right to free speech in the States is one thing, but after seeing the monuments built by past Popes (or Pont Max, as abberviated in the inscriptions) and the wealth of art collected in the Vatican museum, I'd be very concerned about my personal safety if I were to get on the bad side of the Pope. Also it's kinda interesting to see that you can do something that outrageous (like shouting down Obama, or the Pope) and all that happens is you get escorted out of the premises with no charges.

On the other hand, I looked up the news articles about his protests, and none of them had anything to say about his message, just his delivery. Heckler disrupts Obama's speech. Vatican police escort shouting man out of St. Peter's square. No mention of his anti-abortion message or the hypocrisy he perceives in pro-choice Catholics.

Rome, Day 2

Today we set out towards the Vatican. We'd found a nearby hostel (and got the address this time). Thusly prepared, we were able to find the hostel despite it having no signage at all. Unfortunately, it was completely booked, but they recommended us to another hostel (Pensione Ottaviano, on Ottaviano 6), which turned out to have room.
SC recognized the hostel atmoshphere and all was good. We left our extra stuff there and toured the Vatican. It was a lot of walking, but we saw some pretty cool stuff.
First there was St. Peter's Basicila. Very big inside, with some cool statues and paintings. And lots of people with keys. Holding keys, or giving keys to other people, and sometimes just keys without people. And there may have been some other things as well. There was the angels of wisdom and distraction, which I found quite amusing. Also, Death being swept under a rug (maybe that wasn't quite the symbolism there, but whatever). We saw Michelangelo's Pieta. Lots of people around, and unlike the others this one was behind a giant glass wall.
School groups - we saw lots of them, some possibly foreign (i.e. not Italian). We will have to ask the staff at the hostel whether that is a common thing or if we came at that time of the year.
From there we made our way to the Vatican museum. There was the map corridor, which was pretty cool. Lots and lots of maps painted on the walls. Also lots of statues. And a weird globe thing in the courtyard outside. And Roman bath tiles in the round room. Where there was a giant bowl thing. They don't know where they got it from. But they decided to put in the round room.
Also in the round room was a statue of Hera wearing a goatskin. That still had its hooves. So it was like she got this goat, deflated it, wrapped it around her neck, and tied its legs together. I guess if you're a godess, you can just skip the intermediate steps like that.
Statues of animals. That was before the round room. They were not very good at sculpting sea animals, we found. There was a kinda deformed dolphin and a seriously misinformed whale. But they were pretty good at birds and land animals. Lots of things eating deer-type animals. And little children (cherubs?) wrestling with geese. Okay, maybe there was just the one cherub wrestling a goose.
There was an Artemis with a row of breasts. Or maybe they were bull testicles. According to a nearby tour guide, there's no concensus about which it is. In either case, it's a very different image of Artemis than what I remember.
There was an Indo-Iranian god thing stabbing a bull, the blood of which would be the source of cereal and other food crops. And there were evil animals trying to prevent its blood from spilling onto the ground. According to the sign, this myth was brought back by soldiers returning from eastern campaigns.
Finally we made our way to the Rafael rooms. A Pope comissioned some artists to paint his house, but then he heard Rafael was going to be in town, so he scrapped all the previous work and Rafael spent the last 7 years of his life painting frescoes. The theme of one room was Christianity conquering paganism. On the ceiling was a very nicely composed image of a Roman marble statue toppled from its pedestal (and shattered in pieces on the groudn) and replaced by a full-color crucified Jesus, and the rest of the room showed images to that theme.
And then there was the room with the famous Plato and Aristotle frescoe. The one where Plato is pointing to heaven, symbolizing moral philosophy, and Aristotle is pointing to the earth, symbolizing natural philosophy. According to the audioguide, Rafael cast other contemporaries as Classical philosphers and put them into the painting, with much symbolism. I found out that the cracks were actually in the wall and not part of the original painting. I can't imagine the painting without the cracks, though. It look really nice with the cracks.
After the Rafael rooms we went through a whole series of modern paintings (which nobody seemed to be interested in at all, not even the audioguide) and into the Sistine Chapel. It turns out that creation image (the one everybody thinks of when Michelangelo and Sistine Chapel are mentioned in the same sentence) is actually not part of a giant ceiling-mural but rather a single framed image among several others. And it's not entirely clear why that one is so famous. It would be nice, though, to learn some of the significance of the other paintings (or at least what they're supposed to depict). The framing was done really nicely: there are architectural bits (i.e. columns and mouldings) painted in, and they blend perfectly with the actual physical architecture, so that it's hard to tell which is which. And again, it looks nice with the cracks.
After all that, we were really tired of walking and we had a nice lunch with fettucini al funghi porcini and a weak impression of pizza margherita. Also an artichoke. 37 euro.
From there, we confirmed that we had a room for the night (very cheap! came out to 20 euro) and set back out to see some of the other sights of Rome.
We walked by the castle, passed through Campo di Fiori and another important piazza, saw the Parthenon (which is apparently a basicila inside...funny how the Catholics incorporated the Roman buildings and mythology), a lot of really cute small shops that opened onto narrow cobblestone roads, and the Trevi Fountain (which is huge; nothing like the replica at the Venetian in Las Vegas).
In the big piazza (I forget the name) we saw a bunch of people practicing meditation, led by some monks with a translator.
We also saw cute buildings with cool roofs. And little buildings seemingly squished by taller buildings on either side. It was all very cute.
And we got better at crossing the street!
Finally we got back to the hostel. We've improved on our adherence to the local time zone, and if we don't fall asleep too soon we'll try getting some gelato (we passed several gelato shops between here and the metro station).

Rome! Day 1

We arrive in FCO way early in the morning and take the train (12 euro! kinda expensive) to Roma Termini. We see lots of graffiti on the way. On the trains, even.
We take the subway straight to the Colosseum. Another 12 euro for entrance, but that was well worth it. I thought the Colosseum itself was not all that impressive, actually. I think it's even smaller than Stanford stadium. And apparently it's not very well preserved at all...people have been recycling it as building material ever since it was built until sometime in the 20th century. I was surprised at how deep it was, though: there's a very deep basement underneath the arena floor, and it houses lifts and pulleys for things that would come out of trap doors. We also saw Roman graffiti that spectators had carved into the stone (how did that go down? "I'm gonna tag this up; hand me my chisel, will you?"), which was pretty cool. Also there are lots of pigeons, and they walk around like they own the place.
From there, we continued to the Palatine hill and the Roman forum (the same ticket got us into there as well). Very pretty. Augustus had an impressive house. We caught a bit of a tour guide talking about their dining arrangement: there was one big room, flanked by side rooms, each of which had a fountain-like thing populated with exotic plants and birds. And apparently there's an ancient Roman cookbook that is purportedly rather interesting to read.
We saw some really pretty gardens, a cool fern fountain thing that had a stalactite fountain beneath it (water dripping outside => ferns, water dripping inside => cave structures), and lots and lots of small walls (ala Eddie Izzard). Also bits of intricately carved marble, just sitting around. Very decadent. And these columns that stand around unsupported. It would have been really cool to see when all of them were up. Also, without the context of steel construction, these marble structures must have seemed so light and airy.
From there, we discovered that Rome, out of any other city we've been to, has the most dangerous-feeling street crossings. Then we made our way to a turtle fountain (where, we think, all the other tourists must have had the same map that we did, because it was just a little fountain that some 3rd-party sculptor had decided to adorn with turtles), a restaurant where we had pasta and fish (came out to 36 euro), and a long stairway where we sat and watched cars go by. We saw the miniature 3-wheeled car that Jeremy Clarkson drove inside the BBC offices on Top Gear!
From there, we took the bus to the train station, but not before the ticket vending machine ate a 10 euro bill and 4 separate stores refused to change a 10 (3 of them said they only had a single 5...). We tried to follow the hostel map I printed out, but couldn't find any of the hostels on the map. And the hotels we did find were kinda sketchy. We ended up going to a 3-star hotel south of the train station called Hotel Montreal, 70 euro a night.
With the time lag, we fell asleep at 6pm. It's 1 am now, and I just woke up. I'm going to try to sleep again before the morning comes.

More updates

Some updates without pictures:

1. We continue crocheting. SC makes a hat (which is pretty awesome) and I make two fishes. We give one to SC's nephew as a present.
2. SC reads Harry Potter. She finishes all 7 books in about a week.
3. SC turns pants into a vest using Technology (and Labor and Capital).
4. I read through the archives of Schlock Mercenary. I like having pictures along with my text.
5. I've got a fair amount of Kill-a-Watt data now; we can analyze it sometime. I can tell the refrigerator is going to be a big slice of the pie chart. My computer and the fish tank are also going to be big contributors.
6. Speaking of pie, tomorrow is Pi Day! We are going to have a pie celebration with friends.
7. We do some gardening. The chives bloomed, the mint is urgently trying to take over its planter. We've planted basil, Thai basil, green pepper, orange, and lemon seeds. We'll see what grows...

update: Now with pictures!

Crochet fishes:

pi Day:

Chive flowers:

Fishes! An illustrated history, part 5

10/18/09
We've made a lot of progress populating the new tank with plants. The big leafy things are new, but the grass and the one-leafed clover came from the old tank, and they've flourished here.

And water tests showed that the tank is cycled (not too surprising; we have plants and gravel from the old tank), so we added fish! 3 Panda Cories:

We are calling the cowfishes because they sit on the bottom and graze. They kinda look like cows, too.

11/07/09

We move the rest of the fish into the new tank. We find all 3 shrimp! The little shrimp has grown quite a bit.
The process is not without its moments of drama: After moving all the rasboras, we only count 5! Where did the last one go? We check the old tank and double-check the new tank, and finally find him on the floor!
We quickly get him back into a tub of water and he comes to. Over the next few minutes he gets more active and he brushes the carpet lint off of himself.
Finally, I float the tub of water in the new tank so the temperatures can equalize. A few minutes later, SC points out that the tub is empty. Another escape! Fortunately, this time he landed in the tank: we count all 6 rasboras schooling in a corner, no doubt listening to the jumping rasbora's stories of the outside world.

12/16/09
We get ready for winter break. We'll be gone for 2 weeks, so we need to take care of the fish. We have an automatic fish feeder for the rasboras, but the otos and cowfishes need bigger wafers. Also, it'd be nice to be able to add the plant fertilizer. So we set up an elaborate system involving an Arduino and 4 servos:

On top of the tank, one servo moves a strip of paper carrying several wafers, and a second servo pushes them into the tank. The bucket contains a pump circulating water between the bucket and the tank, and the two test tubes perched above the bucket contain fertilizer.
Also note the can of grass jelly drink. We bought a case of them a while back. Best drink purchase ever. Haven't been able to find them sold by the case since.

01/02/10

The plants have grown a lot since we were away. Unfortunately, Gourami has disappeared. Very sad. Even now, I sometimes still think I see him in the tank, peering out at me from behind a leaf. Is that weird?

02/13/10

The new stem plants have grown prolifically, but our otherwise hardy cabbage bush (Java fern) has been decimated by disease or something. It's still hanging in there, though, and I'm hopeful for a recovery.
We get a few new fish: 2 very small panda cories and 2 otos. Unfortunately, none of them make it through the next few days except for one of the otos. What are we doing wrong?

02/28/10
We fill the old tank with water and hook up pipes to cycle water between the two. The idea is that, by increasing the total volume of water, we'll be able to go longer between water changes (we're planning to take another long vacation in the future).
This also takes us one step closer to the fish tube: a clear, large diameter tube connecting the two tanks, big enough for a fish to swim through. Pretty awesome.

Fishes! An illustrated history, part 4

06/15/09
We move! Also, there's like 3 months without photos. I wonder where those went...
We're only moving 2 miles away, though. We drain the water, leaving ~3 gallons, carefully move it to the car, drive as smoothly as possible, and carefully setup the tank in the new location, but we still end up stirring up tons of sediment and some of the scenery (e.g. the log) settles during the move.
The fishes seem to be okay, though, and we slowly fill up the tank with new water.

Somewhere around this time, we also begin our battle with blue-green algae (cyanobacteria). You can see some in this photo. We begin waging a war of manual removal

08/15/09
Manual removal is not working. We buy some erythromycin from Aqua Forest aquarium in the city. We're a bit apprehensive, but the biological weapons work great.

08/28/09
We'd been talking about setting up a new tank for some time now, and we finally go for it. It's a soil substrate covered with fine sand and gravel in some places. As we add water, though, we find that the soil doesn't wet very well and is therefore quite buoyant. We'll need to let it soak for a few days.

Meanwhile, a short fuzzy algae is taking over our old tank. We've also lost a lot of plants in the cyanobacteria campaign.

09/06/09
This is our trumpet snail. He's HUGE. We think this is probably the trumpet snail we discovered way back (because we enacted a policy of systematic genocide of any subsequent snails we discovered), which would give him the longest tenancy of any animal in the tank.

This is one of our Otos. We used to have 3: Crazyfish, Sedatefish, and Bigfish, but then one disappeared (kinda like how non-broken-tail Gourami disappeared a while back, but in Gourami's case we found him weeks later on the floor).

Here are some Rasboras. They're a funny lot.

And here's a very characteristic shot of broken-tail Gourami, peering out at you from behind some cover. When we first got him, we still had the moss-ball-on-a-string hanging in the tank, and he'd spend lots of time hiding underneath it. I guess his main concern was aerial attack...

Today we got some cherry shrimp! Two big ones and a little one. We quickly lost the little one, and the big ones tend to stay out of sight, but we catch a glimpse of them every now and then.

Our new tank is coming along. We moved Nana over and planted some new plants.

French bread process development

I've made another few batches of French bread using the recipe from before. Here are my conclusions (no pictures though):

The recipe:

1. Mix 1/2 C whole wheat flour, 1 C white flour, and 1/2 t salt.
2. Dissolve 1/2 t yeast in 3/4 C warm water and mix solution into dry mixture
3. Let sit 15 min.
4. Dump goopy mess out onto well-floured surface
5. Knead in additional white flour (1/4 to 1/2 C) until satisfied
1. It should be dry enough that you can knead it 6 times without additional flour without sticking to the surface
2. It'll probably still stick to your hands and generally be a pain to knead
3. It should still be wet enough that it sticks if you knead it more than 10 times
6. Let rise until nearly doubled (~2 hr)
7. Fold, let rise again until doubled (~2 hr)
8. Shape, let rise while oven preheats (10-20 min)
9. Slash
10. Bake 30 min. @ 425°F
11. Bake 20 min. @ 350°F
12. Cool for 10 min. before cutting

Sensitivity to parameters

I don't have a lot of process control for the kneading/hydration, so I think it must be relatively robust to errors there. I think step 3 is pretty important for getting nice, elastic gluten chains, so that may unload some of the sensitivity to kneading quality.

Salt is pretty easy to measure repeatedly, so that's not a huge issue. I've been using different amounts of yeast, and that just seems to affect rise times.

Rise time, too, is not terribly sensitive. A visual inspection of volume change appears to be sufficient.

Punch down and shaping seem to affect the crumb: to get big, uneven bubbles in the bread you'd want to do these very lightly.

Finally, I've been getting lots of rise in the oven with this recipe compared to some past ones. I think having more water and step 3 both make the dough more elastic and able to support the steam generated in the oven. I suspect that the short post-shaping wait also helps keep the dough elastic going into the oven.

Slashing has a large effect on how it rises in the oven, especially in the distribution of added volume.

So that's it! I'd feel confident calling this recipe a rev A release.

LaTeX things I keep forgetting

Itemize and enumerate spacing 

To change the spacing of an itemize environment (or of anything, really, it's just most annoying with itemize):
\setlength{\itemsep}{2pt}
\setlength{\parskip}{0pt}

If you're going to do a lot, then you can define a new environment
\newenvironment{name}
{
   \begin{enumerate}
   \setlength ...
}
{
   \end{enumerate}
}

Graphics
To crop:
[trim=95 25 95 15,clip]
It's left, bottom, right, top

To define a bounding box:
[bb=0 0 719 570]
It's x,y,width,height

Header

\documentclass[12pt,letterpaper]{article}
%\parindent0em
\usepackage{graphicx}
%\usepackage{subfigure}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage{lscape}
%\usepackage{mcode}
\addtolength{\oddsidemargin}{-.75in}
\addtolength{\evensidemargin}{-.75in}
\addtolength{\textwidth}{1.5in}
\addtolength{\topmargin}{-.25in}
\addtolength{\textheight}{1.25in}

Note that the length adjustments are based on my LaTeX=>ps always outputting in A4 paper rather than letter...

Hmm...had an issue this time with LaTeX=>ps turning my .jpg into black & white...odd...
But the rest of these tips should work!

Fishes! An illustrated history, part 3

03/05/2009 
More fishes! We got 6 harlequin rasboras...

...and 3 pygmy gouramis.

03/19/2009
The plants grew a lot! The grass spread all around the left side of the tank, we trimmed and re-planted fuzzy plant a few times, and the Java fern and crypt both got a lot denser. The red plant didn't grow as quickly, and the one-leaf clover got a little overtaken by algae. We also found riccia growing in our one-leaf clover.

04/19/2009 
Much has happened. The plants have gotten denser still. We switched to a single fluorescent tube for illumination, and now we no longer have a green spot problem. Most of the riccia has come loose and floated to a clump on the top. The grass does not seem to be spreading as quickly now, and some of it is turning transparent (maybe lack of light?). Nana has some algae scars on its oldest leaves, but has put out many new leaves. Java fern continues to grow steadily and is becoming less cabbage-like. One-leaf clover is still hanging in there (we removed the algae-covered leaves, so there is not much left)...

...our fuzzy plants continue to grow prolifically (though we saw some of the denser groves in the back die off...don't know if they were planted too densely or if there wasn't enough light or what)...

...the red plants are putting out pretty new shoots, though many of the older leaves seem to be succumbing to algae...

...the rasboras are being playful and schooling...

...the gouramis have become a bit territorial, we think, as we see them chasing each other and getting into fights occasionally. Broken-fin gourami is now noticably fatter and darker than the other two, and shy gourami has become very skinny and pale. We don't know how to make them be nicer to each other :( ...

...and we found a new snail! I don't have a photo of it yet, but it is a "pond snail." It's very fast-moving and quite acrobatic. Sometimes he floats upside-down, moving along the surface of the water. I have also seen him lose his footing and get pushed about in the current until he can grab ahold of something. Anyways, it appears that he has laid eggs: as far as we can tell, he's the only species in our tank that would produce this sort of egg sac:

04/24/2009 
We got Excel in the mail! It is a source of organic carbon that is less volatile than carbon dioxide (i.e., it stays in solution longer). Hopefully this will help our plants grow better.
04/30/2009
Rest in peace, shyfish.
05/10/2009
We got a phosphate test kit and some nitrogen fertilizer (it is a mixture of nitrate and urea). We measured phosphate at 10 ppm, way above the recommended levels, so that might be a major factor in our algae growth. We started dripping nitrogen.
05/13/2009
After 3 days of dripping, our phosphates are still at 10 ppm and our nitrate at 0, but our ammonia has gone up to 0.5 ppm! Our pH is still at 7.6, where it has been for awhile. We will do some water changes in the next few days.