We had a huge set of thunderstorms here yesterday and as John and I were slogging through the rain to the cafe I had an epiphany. You see, umbrellas are called para (for)lluvia(rain) here – makes sense doesn’t it? As I looked out from under my hood at all of the lucky people who owned umbrellas it suddenly struck me that the English word parasol was para (for)sol(sun). Yes, I know it should have been obvious LONG ago, but most of the time you just don’t think about these things until they smack you in the face.

We have seen an increasing number of signs, especially in the small kioskos stating “No hay monedas” – we have no coins. There has been such a shortage of coins in the past few weeks that small entrepreneurs have sprung up selling people coins for more than their face value. The government has been involved in trying to investigate the mafia de monedas and the subway system was forced to let riders ride for free last Monday because they could not provide change to people buying tickets. Read more from the International Herald Tribune.

Everyone guards their coins. When you buy something – even at large groceries, they always ask you if you are sure you don’t have any smaller bills or maybe some coins. When we do provide exact change the thanks we get is so enthusiastic – as if we have done them a HUGE favor.

In case they are not putting much about this in the  U.S. News, Bolivia experienced 2 very violent days of rioting (12 people killed) and the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, blamed the U.S. for backing the protesters.  He threw out the U.S. ambassador on Wednesday.  On Thursday, the president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez said that he had uncovered a plot by the U.S. to kill him and overthrow his government. He threw the U.S. ambassador out. The U.S. has reciprocated and thrown out the ambassadors of Venezuela and Bolivia. As you can imagine, this did not go over well in the rest of South America.

Why am I writing about this? Because today there was a HUGE protest here in Buenos Aires against the plot of the United States to overthrow the governments of Bolivia and Venezuela. It was not that close to where we live (5 miles at least) but we saw it on TV.  People are upset with Bush and the U.S. government – not Americans in general so we don’t feel at all strange about being here. Our Spanish is very limited right now so trying to make ourselves understood if we got into an uncomfortable situation would be difficult, otherwise we would go down and watch the protests.  They are quite organized, not at all violent, and very peaceful protests here from what we have seen – nothing like what happened in Bolivia, so no need to worry. 

Both Chavez and Morales are known for throwing around accusations, but it makes you wonder.  I seriously doubt that there was a plot of assassination, but wouldn’t be that surprised if the U.S. did give some sort of aid to anti-government groups in Bolivia. The U.S. government has been known to secretly back “rebel” groups to try and overthrow governments from time to time.

Meanwhile, life goes on as usual.  Last night we went to a meeting called Drinking Liberally sponsored by Democrats Abroad, mostly because we miss speaking to other people and are interested in the upcoming election. We don’t have enough Spanish yet to speak to Argentinians in an intelligent manner so it was great to have real conversations.  It was also nice to meet other people who had moved to BA for “no particular reason”.  Many of them have been here for several years now and they are a great resource to help us figure out how things work here.  Today we worked for a few hours, went and got coffee, walked around for a while, had lunch of empenadas y lorco, came home and worked more, took a break for tea, worked more, and are now surfing the Internet and making dinner.  Tomorrow we are going with a group of Ex-Pats to “Campo Night” – going out to an estancia to have dinner and a bonfire and lots of talking.  We leave Buenos Aires at 4PM and will probably leave the estancia around midnight or 1AM.

Yesterday we stopped for a lunch of kabops at a small hole-in-the-wall restaurant. After sitting there a few minutes and watching the comings-and-goings around us, Robin remarked that it appeared we had inadvertently sat down at the local mafioso hangout. For instance, a shady-looking pair were sitting next to us conducting various business with people that would just walk up randomly, and the parking lot was full of Mercedes autos with Albanian plates.
At some point we struck up a conversation with one of the shady guys (“Albert”) at the next table. It turns out that he is from Albania and frequently travels back and forth across the border. I stupidly mentioned something about not liking Bush after introducing ourselves as Americans (despite my policy of attempting to keep politics out of conversations). It turns out that Albert was actually one of the few Bush-lovers on the planet. He had very strong words to say about wanting to kill us if he was a “muslim-men”. Despite his ethnic biases, he was actually quite a nice guy. He bought us a round of drinks (everyone here is trying to get us drunk I think) and we chatted for about an hour.
Albania has had a very hard time coming to terms with the fall of communism. Not being wise to the ways of capitalism, most people in the country apparently lost their life savings to pyramid schemes. Many of those that now have money have come through it by less than honest means. Albert had lots of money. Albert mentioned that the town (Ulcunj) was full of mafioso. I point-blank asked him if he was Albanian mafia. He completely ignored the question, pretty much confirming our guess.
Another entertaining, yet puzzling, thing happened at lunch. Earlier in the day we had seen a young(ish) woman get out of a car with an older lady. The woman was decked head to toe in green. A green polkadot dress, green high-heels, even green fingernail polish. The older lady stood there primping the woman’s dress before they set off to walk around town. During lunch this pair showed up at our restaurant and had some words with the owner. They then went into the restaurant. A few minutes later the woman in green rushed out with a younger gentleman and got into the back of a car parked nearby. The older woman and another person came out, got into the front of the car and drove away. A couple of bystanders (young boy, old man) stood there staring as they drove off. I don’t know if the old lady was pimping out the woman, if we had just witnessed the start of a shotgun wedding, or what.
Today our landlady outdid herself. After eating a hearty breakfast we were just about to get up and leave. Suddenly the daughter brings out a huge platter of fresh cheese and told us the mother was making us something else. She had gone out on the patio and fried up a large plateful of fried pastries. Although we were already full from breakfast, we could hardly refuse. Will have to do a lot of extra walking today I think.
We’ve taken to walking down to a local cafe after breakfast and having coffee with Feri, a man we met who drives a cab and gives tours. Well, we had coffee; Feri was on his second (local, strong) beer when we got there this morning. Very nice man with a lot of information about all of Montenegro.

We arrived in Ulcinj Montenegro yesterday afternoon after a 5 hour ride down the coast from Dubrovnik. The trip was quite interesting, in part because the further south we travel, the worse the buses get. The bus on the final leg of the journey literally had bailing wire holding it together. The windows were also completely messed up so we couldn’t really see out to enjoy the scenery.
A few minutes after arriving in Ulcinj a couple pulled up and offered us a room. We’re getting better deals lately too. Our board is €10 each, a very nice breakfast included. When we got to their house they made us some turkish coffee and served us crepes. Later we walked around down by the beach and up into the old town. A man there sat us down and chatted with us for a while and served us free pear schnapps. Later, after walking around for a while longer we stopped for a couple of beers. Cost: €1 each.
We splurged and spent another €10 each to have our hosts make us a nice homemade dinner. First they served us a very good peach brandy. Unfortunately they kept insisting on refilling the glass with more. This theme would continue throughout the meal. Next came an incredible fish soup and fresh bread, along with a salad. The salad had olives that the family had grown and preserved themselves. Along with the first course the white wine started flowing. It was hand-bottled so I assume it was some local wine. The main course consisted of pan-fried fish caught earlier in the day with a great garlic-lemon puree. Potatoes and risotto were served on the side. All in all it was one of the best meals we’ve had on the trip.
We woke this morning to a call to prayer from a mosque down the street. A pretty violent thunderstorm blew in overnight and so the weather is cool today, ruining our plan to veg out on the beach all day. This is probably a good thing as we’re still trying to figure out how to get Robin to Ireland on Monday.
Ulcinj is a lovely town with very friendly people, and best of all it is kind of off the beaten tourist track. We’d like to come back and spend a few days-weeks-months here at some point.

The Plan:
We’re still hanging out in Croatia. Right now we’re in Dubrovnik, where hopefully we will finally get some decent beach time! I’ve been dreaming of a nice warm beach since last November but it just hasn’t materialized yet.
The plan is to stay in Dubrovnik for a few days then migrate south towards Athens over the next week. From Athens Robin will fly to Ireland for 5 days to work. After that we’re thinking about hanging out in Greece for a while and then heading toward Sicily. It looks like we’ll probably stay for at least the summer in Europe. We’re even considering buying a (very tiny) car here!
Random Fact:
The Croatian chief of state is President Mesic; how cool is that!
From Split To Dubrovnik:
Bosnia/Herzogovina is a land-locked country, except for a 6-mile section smack-dab in the middle of Croatia. So we crossed the border into B/H while traveling from Split to Dubrovnik, then crossed back into Croatia a few miles later. We did stop for a lunch break while in B/H though. There was a kind of duty-free store that accepted payment in pretty much any currency. While we watched, we saw transactions in Kuna, US Dollars and Euros. A bunch of Japanese tourists from a tour bus went into a spending frenzy, buying a bunch of chocolate for god knows why.
We’ve traveled almost the entire coast of Croatia by bus. It’s a crazy-long ride as the road hugs the shoreline the entire way and it is not by any means a straight coast. Sometimes we would travel 20 kilometers by road to get 2 kilometers down the coast. Despite the long trip the buses are comfortable and the scenery is awesome. It is cheaper, faster, and easier than traveling by ferry or train.
All along the highway we would see nice little restaurants with outdoor seating, each with a giant rotisserie out front. We saw everything from pigs to lamb to chickens to pork chops being grilled. Unfortunately we haven’t seen a single similar restaurant within the towns we’ve stayed at. It’s very frustrating and perhaps one of the reasons we’re thinking about getting a car!
We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Reservations:
Robin and I have learned a new trick for finding a place to stay. Earlier in the trip we pored over web sites trying to figure out where to book rooms. Usually we stayed in shared-room hostels for $15-$25 per person (cheap hotels costing upwards of $65-$75). Now we don’t try to find a room until the evening we arrive in a town, and our life is much easier.
We arrived in Dubrovnik at about 8:30pm and as expected were immediately mobbed by a bunch of old ladies trying to provide pansiones for rent. Not being in the mood for bargaining, we just picked the loudest one. She took us to her house which was less than a 1 minute walk from the station. She turned out to have a beautiful brand-new set of rooms complete with an ensuite toilette in ours. There is even a separate kitchen available for guest use. The place is so new that the stove for the kitchen will be put in tomorrow. The bill is 180 Kuna, or a bit over $33 per night. This is very cheap for Dubrovnik, especially over the holiday (May Day) weekend. I suspect we could have bargained and gotten it for cheaper but we both got a fair deal I think.
Both times we have gone with the pansione route we’ve ended up with very nice centrally-located lodging. The old ladies are very sweet as well, falling over themselves trying to be helpful. The landlady in Split did not speak that much English, but somehow had fixated on the word “super“. Every sentence she uttered was super-this or super-that. “This room, it is super!” “The beach, it is super! Super walk to the beach!”. Best of all, she took to calling Robin “SuperRobin!”. She had to introduce us to her daughter and we had a nice long conversation about family and other random stuff.
The landlady in Dubrovnik was so proud of her new apartment. She (her sister actually) had to show us every light switch, the bed, the new floors, the way the lights went on and off. She made a rather big deal of the electric light switch actually.
Well, it’s off to the beach now!

John and I traveled separately for a few days and I went to visit Bologna while he went to Slovenia.
I met up with a group of people Saturday night at a bar in central Bologna and had a glass of wine and free buffet. The “new” tradition in Italy of apperitivo with free food is great. You usually pay 4-7 Euros for a drink and get free food ranging from snacks to a full buffet.

There were about 15 of us, mostly Italian, but also one representative from Egypt, Ireland, Australia, Pakistan, England, and New Zealand. I didn’t have my camera with me so these photos are just to get you in the mood of Bologna.
From the bar we went to the center plaza for a concert that was in celebration of Bologna’s liberation from “Nazzifaccismo”. The concert turned out to be not very good so we went on a tour of the town by night and ended up at a bar called Transylvania – very gothic décor that fit in well with the medieval building in which it was housed. I had to catch a bus after that, but everyone else went back to the center plaza for a bit before drifting towards home around 2AM.

The next day, camera in hand, I headed out to picnic with the group. There were many more people than the night before, probably 35 at the high point in the day.

We ate and then played around and talked.


Tereza from New Zealand tried out the couch.


Then came the singing. What songs could all those people from all different countries know? Many songs by The Beetles, “Losing my Religion” and “Wonderwall” to start with.


Half of the group stayed in the park and the other half went on what was supposed to be a one hour tour of the waterway under Bologna. We were gone for three hours.


The entrance was through a steel plate in the street.

The tour included information about the Roman structures, medieval buildings built on top of that, and 1700s construction on top of that and…so on. The corner of the building seen over the waterway was a bathroom with, of course, a hole in the floor for the waste to drop into the stream. The tour was in Italian and I caught a lot of it, but the guide talked on and on and it seemed when others told me what she said that the points I understood were the important bits and then she just rambled on a bit.

On the way back from the underground, Matteeo showed us a few interesting sights in Bologna including the window to look at the river running through town.

The river.


Interesting phrase in this ceiling mural found on a covered walkway near the town center – “Canibus Protectio”


This guy was set up on the edge of the town square. He has all of this equipment built into his motorcycle. He rides to a new town, plays, and rides off again. Click on the picture to take a closer look.


Matteeo showed us an interesting perspective on Bologna’s famous statue – he looks happy to see you.
To be continued!

Today we moved apartments – back to the one we were in originally. Our flatmate was nice, but we could not really understand her moods, what we were suposed to touch and not touch, what we needed to purchase ourselves, etc. We ended up feeling very much like unwanted invaders most of the time rather than paying guests. Anyway, we dropped our stuff off at the new (old) place where we will share a flat with 4 other students. We have to wait until 5 to get the key to the room and since it is Easter weekend the museums are packed – we wandered a bit and are now at InternetTrain surfing.
Tomorrow we will go to the Pasqua celebrations where we will witness a wooden cart being drawn through the streets to the Duomo by white oxen. The archbishop of Firenze will light a symbolic dove with holy fire, it will fly down to the courtyard where it will alight on the wooden cart filled with fireworks and cause it to “explode”. For a real explanation of this tradition, click here.

So, what have we been up to? Just the usual: wandering around, watching people, eating too much, trying to talk to the natives. We have actually not been inside any of the museums yet – who needs to pay to go look at art when it’s all around you?
Often, after school, we pick a direction and just start walking. The things we see are astounding: little sculptures in alcoves behind glass, fountains on the sides of businesses, statues standing in the cross-section of two small streets. The amount of art sitting in quiet corners and hiding behind busy tourist stands is unimaginable. It’s like we landed in a giant seek-and-find, the list of everyday marvels is endless.
Of course we plan to go to the museums before we leave, but in a city where the graffiti takes the form of the Fibonacci sequence, it may be a while before we have to pay to go see something amazing.

It is just starting to get warm enough to hang out in the parks. This one is very close to where we are staying and is usually filled with people taking their pausa between about 1:00 and 3:00PM. Normally, in the non-tourist districts, stores close between 1:30 and 4:00 and then re-open until about 7:00 or 8:00. We were told today that until recent years during the month of August EVERTHING closed down and people left town for vacation.

We decided to go investigate an old fort (Fortezza da Basso) very near where we are living. It was really interesting from the outside and even had what we thought was at one time a moat. The compound is actually huge – it takes up a large section of our map, and we had been wondering why it wasn’t mentioned in any of the tourist lists.

We spied a sign stating that there would be free admission to the fort over the weekend, but didn’t read closely enough. We went back the day after taking these photos and entered the fort. It has been converted to a modern convention center and they were having a home buying fair. Not exactly what we were expecting.


We decided to wander around the center of the city and quickly made our way down to the Duomo (cathedral). The lines for entrance wrapped around the building and around the block.


There were people from all over the world in large groups and small, each speaking a different language and many sporting interesting fashions.


The Duomo is undergoing preservation/reconstruction right now, which should make the big Pasqua (Easter) celebration on Sunday even more of a challenge – it will be interesting to see.


Past the Duomo we went over the Ponte Vecchio that bridges the Arno River. The Ponte Vecchio is famous for being lined with gold and silver shops. Needless to say, we didn’t buy.


On the other side of the river we passed the Pitti Palace and explored the surrounding neighborhoods. Here is a fountain on the side of a building near the bridge.


There are hundreds of churches in the city, most with beautiful artwork inside and out. I especially like the busts of saints with halos that are commonly found above the doorways.

I really hate being seen as an annoying tourist wandering about with my camera, but there is so much that is picture worthy. I am sure that people often wonder just what it is I am taking a picture of. In this case, I just really liked the little piazza – the woman in the foreground with the cigarette was waving it around and gesturing wildly as she talked to the man off camera – very typically Italian.


I wish I had opened the door to this shop to take the picture, but I didn’t want to disturb the people inside. This is a pretty typical neighborhood shop selling cheese, wine, cured meats, pasta, and a few specialty items. I often wonder how each shop stays in business because they all sell the same thing and they are everywhere. I suppose people frequent only the ones closest to them, but it still seems impossible that there would be enough business to support them all.

Parking space is almost non-existent and w
ith gas priced at €1.26 per liter, or about $6.37 USD per gallon, most people choose to use scooters or small cars if they can’t walk or bike to their destination. This car is a bit smaller than average, but quite common. The people in Italy are, on average, quite a bit smaller than Americans, both in height and girth. John and I often feel like giants walking down the street, especially when we meet a group of Japanese tourists. This car is probably quite comfortable for many Italians – it even has a back seat.


Here is just another corner in the neighborhood. Nothing special.

We stop into a bar at least twice a day to get our coffee fix. Most people drink their caffe (espresso) standing at the bar and leave. They do the same with alcohol as the coffee bars serve both. We have often been standing at a bar enjoying our caffe machiatto and witnessed a few regulars come in, greet the bar man, knock down a shot of their regular liquor and hop back on their scooter. During Easter season, the bars all sell Uova de Pasqua – big chocolate Easter eggs with a surprise inside. They come in sizes ranging from 2oz – 10kilos!


Another normal traffic circle – except for the large statue of a woman with a block of marble balancing on her head and the ancient walls in the background.


We keep taking street shots – can’t help it.


This is the Piazza della Republica, once the center of Firenze (Florence), now the middle of the tourist area. It’s an interesting place to hang out and people watch, but you need to bring your own food and drink as the cafes are really overpriced in this area.

Street art. We have seen this girl several times re-creating famous paintings in chalk on the sidewalk in the tourist district.

We have been to two class sessions and are feeling overwhelmed. Last Sunday we knew no Italian, now we are in the midst of complex verb conjugations and trying to remember simple vocabulary. The worst part for me is the pronunciation – CH is K and CE, CI, SE, SI are CH. That’s just the beginning. We are having fun trying to speak with passion, but it’s difficult when you aren’t sure of what you are saying.
Saturday we moved apartments. Because we came in the middle of the week, we were given temporary housing (which we didn’t know was temporary) until they found us another room. The first flat was five minutes from the school and shared with six other students. 7 girls, 1 guy, 1 bathroom – but everyone was very courteous so there was never a problem. There were also 4 bedrooms, a kitchen, and a dining room. The owner didn’t speak much English and we, of course, only know very simple Italian phrases so she had one of the other girls translate. The rules were – no smoking and no guests. Within 10 minutes of the landlady’s departure the apartment was filled with cigarette smoke – 20 minutes later, a group of guests arrived. Our flatmates spoke German and French and were there learning advanced Italian.

Our new place is much further from the school, but much nicer. We are with a single Italian woman who is a professional harpist. She speaks Italian, German, and English. Our room is quite spacious and VERY Italian – we even have a chandelier. We have kitchen privileges and there is a living room to enjoy as well. It is right next to a supermarket, several cheese and bread shops, and there is a street market several days a week in the mornings – usually veggies and misc. flea market stuff. Tonight we cooked our first meal – pasta with spicy pesto, wine, cheese, and grapes. It was wonderful to be able to cook, but very strange to do it in someone else’s kitchen so we didn’t do anything elaborate.
The weather here has been unusually cold. It snowed for the two days we were in Fabriano and has been cold and threatening rain for the past few days here in Florence. I did not pack for the weather so I have been wearing my only two long sleeve shirts for days now. Our new flatmate has graciously loaned me the use of a coat as I couldn’t find an appropriate one when shopping yesterday. We will have to do laundry soon, but as it is raining we will wait. No one here has clothes dryers – they have washing machines in the kitchen or on the balcony and everybody hangs their clothes to dry on lines outside the balconies. On sunny days there are clothes around every terrace and balcony in the city.

Yesterday we spent all day walking through the city and stopping to study. We found beautiful little piazzas in every neighborhood surrounded by ancient buildings that were alive and thriving. Every part of every space in this city is being used. Most of the coffee bars are tiny little shops with a counter where you stand to drink your coffee/liquor and chat with your neighbors. A coffee (espresso) is usually about €.80. We stopped at several of these coffee bars along the way, the price increasing dramatically as we got closer to the tourist areas. In the majority of the places that had a few tables it was the same price to sit or stand, but not all. Unfortunately, in the last place we tried, close to the Ponte Vecchio, we paid €16 for 4 coffees and a small pastry – more than double what we paid for lunch!

Lunch was at a small coffee shop that sold Panini, far away from the tourist area, where the kind shopkeeper showed us exactly where we were on our map and made certain we understood before we could leave. We had been looking for a place to eat for about 30 minutes, worried that we would be forced to go towards the tourist areas as most regular businesses close from about 2:30 – 5:00. Fortunately, it wasn’t as late as we thought and we enjoyed panini with mozzarella, pomodori, and some sort of cured meat that I think was mortadella bologna.

We managed to wind our way around to the Academia where we stopped briefly to look at the statues outside before deciding to come back on a weekday afternoon when it would be much less crowded. We wove our way through streets lined with ancient churches, shops dedicated to the top Italian designers, and tiny places offering antiques mixed with tourist junk. We stopped at an English bookstore to purchase an additional book on Italian and a better map. John found himself on Purgatory street!

The streets were filled with tourists from all over Europe. Italians in furs come to shop at the designer stores, and locals hanging out watching the chaos. At one point we heard drums and trumpets and peeked around the corner to see a procession coming down the street with Renaissance era costumed flag bearers, drummers, trumpeters, and knights. Next the “noble families” appeared dressed in their finest, and finally, the on-lookers who decided to join in the parade. It was touristy, but fun anyway.
At about five o’clock we found a pizzeria we wanted to try, but it wasn’t open until six so we wandered around a bit and found another coffee bar to study in until it was time to eat. I am sure the other patrons thought we were a bit odd with the sentences we were repeating to each other trying to get the verb tenses right – “ Io sono una studentessa d’italiano. Tu sei un vero amico. Eduardo e’ molto simpatico.” I hope some of it sunk in!
The dinner was well worth the wait. We had a bottle of house red wine and a simple soup of barley with a few legumes and split peas, followed by a spicy salame pizza for John, and one with proscutto cotto, olives, and artichoke for me. During the meal, the German couple beside us turned to John and asked, in Italian, if he would take their picture. It was a good moment. The pizza in this part of Italy is paper thin and cooked very fast in wood burning brick ovens. The pizza maker at this particular establishment was an expert. He could grab a piece of dough and with a few quick turns and a toss it was ready for toppings.

This morning I woke up to many, many church bells tolling and looked out the window to see little old ladies shaking rugs and dust cl
oths out their windows. There is not much open on Sunday, but we walked to the nearest open supermarket and bought supplies. Whenever you go to a foreign country, you need to spend a lot of time at the supermarket. Many of the things we saw were versions of things we knew, but some things were so foreign we had no idea what they were. I can’t wait to find out!