Melissa's Visit to Rome

Melissa and I at the Colosseum

A few days ago my college friend Melissa said she was thinking about visiting Rome for the weekend. She was in the middle of a business stay in Stockholm and wanted to use a weekend to visit another city. The timing was perfect because Daniele and I had had a trip to his cousin's in Umbria planned for this weekend, which we had to cancel last minute when Daniele's work shifts changed. So, with our plans canceled we were exceptionally free. Also, Rome was holding an event Saturday, the “Night of the Museums” (actually it was held all through out Europe this night). Many of the city and national museums would be open until 2AM and only cost 1 Euro. Also, other places, like government buildings and embassies that are normally closed to the public were open this night, though many by appointment only, and we were too late to make any appointments.

Melissa flew in Saturday evening and we met her at Termini. We had a quick dinner of Arancine (fried rice and cheese deliciousness) and then Gelato before heading out to see the sights. We ate near Lepanto, just off Cola di Rienzo, the street that connects Piazza del Popolo to the Vatican. We walked Cola di Rienzo to Piazza Popolo, then Via del Corso (Rome's “main” street) end-to-end from Piazza Popolo to Piazza Venezia. Piazza Venezia is where the Altare della Patria stands. From here we bore right to Capitoline Hill (in Italian Campidoglio), home of the Capitoline Museum and Rome's City Hall.

Our goal was to enter the City Hall. The volunteers on top of the hill told us there was one line for everything: City Hall, Capitoline Museum, the ruins underneath, and a concert going as well. In the end it turned out that the City Hall was not actually open, like the website said, but we enjoyed the museum, both its collections and the two late-Renaissance palaces that they reside in: Palazzo dei Conservatori, and Palazzo Nuovo. We also, for the first time, got to see the tunnels underneath, which connect the two palaces and show off the Ancient Roman structures under ground level.

The original bronze statue of Romulus and Remus suckling their wolf mother.

After we finished Capitoline, we reversed our path heading back up Via del Corso. It was getting late at this point, but we still had some time before the last places closed. We swung by the Trevi Fountain, since it is so pretty at night, before turning off past the Pantheon (closed by this hour, but we saw it from outside, at least) to Piazza Navona. Piazza Navona is possibly the most beautiful piazza in Rome. Its ovular shape is dominated by three Bernini fountains and closed in by beautiful Renaissance facades. Back in the day, before the fountains were built, the Romans would flood this piazza and stage naval battles here.

Piazza Navona is also the home of the Brazilian Embassy and near the Italian Senate building, two other places that we were thinking about trying to enter tonight. They are both normally closed to the public. However, we were getting tired at this point and both had long lines out front that threatened to not finish before the last entrance. So we walked past the illuminated windows, peeking inside, before heading back to the car at Lepanto, this time taking a route along the river.

Melissa was flying out at the crack of dawn on Monday-- to enjoy a long layover / day-trip in Zurich, which I will admit I'm jealous of. I've never seen Zurich outside of the airport. That only gave us Sunday to see all the must-see spots in Rome.

We started our day with the classic “cappuccino e cornetto” breakfast just outside our apartment while making our attack plan for the day. We walked to the Colosseum from our house, which is maybe a 25 minute walk, or the same time by Metro, since you have to change lines. By walking we got to pass under the Aurelian Walls before stopping at San Giovanni basilica (the “duomo” of Rome, as the Vatican is a sovereign nation in its own right). San Giovanni is very pretty and features lots of marble statues both inside and out. From here it is about another 10 minute walk to the Colosseum.

Inside San Giovanni Cathedral

At the Colosseum we were greeted by the normal large crowds mixed in with a “Race for the Cure” crowd, which at least meant the streets were closed so we could all fit. We walked past and went first to the Roman Forum, which uses the same ticket as the Colosseum but almost always has shorter lines to buy them. Here we were presently surprised to get in for free! My last AirBnb guests had left us their Roma Pass, which I figured was used up or expired, but it got us into both the Forum and Colosseum free of charge. We walked around the Forum, which was the center of life and commerce in Ancient Roman times. We also crossed over to the “Palatine Hill”, where I'd never visited before. Like the Capitoline from the night before, this was one of the original Seven Hills of Rome. This one was actually were Romulus and Remus made their home. The Palatine area felt like just an extension of the Roman Forum, only a bit more open and park-like. We took the “Colosseum” exit from the Forum, then grabbed some ice cream (it was really hot) before heading into the Colosseum itself.

The Roman Forum


Palatine Hill


The Colosseum

Once we finished with the Colosseum, we took the Metro from there to Ottaviano, the stop nearest the Vatican. We knew we couldn't fit in the Vatican Museum on such a short trip, but St. Peter's is a must see. We purposely came here in the afternoon, when most of the pilgrims who came for the Sunday Blessing in the morning would have moved on to other sites. And, in fact, the line was reasonable and moved fast. We decided to spring the 5 Euros to go to the top (5 to climb all 500+ stairs, 7 to take the elevator part way then take the last 300+ stairs). I had only done this once before, with my mom and Aunt Linda, back when I first visited Rome in 2006, but I remembered that the stairs get pretty narrow. In the beginning, the stairs are wide and we could even walk side-by-side. They become single-file before you arrive at an open area that is above the basilica, but not the dome yet. You then enter the dome, and walk around the inside edge of it, looking down at the HUGE church underneath. When you start climbing from this point you are actually climbing between the inside and outside walls of the dome. So the walls of the stairway are slanted, but only slightly at first, though I could see it giving anyone with vertigo or claustrophobia a bit of trouble. Then it gets a bit more narrow, and you need your hands on the walls, because there is not enough space to walk standing straight. It keeps getting more and more narrow and more and more slanted until you get to the spiral stairway that is the last section. This last part is so narrow I could not have stretched my elbows out (and I'm not particularly long-limbed). There is not even space for a central column for the spiral staircase, there is just a rope than hangs down. But finally, you come out at the very top of the dome, and have the most beautiful view of Rome, out even to the mountains beyond it.

Looking up into the main dome of St. Peter's Basilica


The view from the very top of the dome of St. Peter's Basilica

At this point it was 6PM, and the Basilica closes at 7PM. So we made our rounds inside, before walking though the piazza, and straight out the opening, in the direction of the river and Castle St. Angelo. We enjoyed the view here, of the river, the fortress, the bridge of angels, and the basilica in the distance for a few minutes before Daniele met us here. He drove us up to Gianicolo Hill where we got another nice view of Rome, now colored by the sunset.

St. Angelo Bridge

We then went to one of my favorite restaurants, MoMo, which seems fancy but has great prices and all of their food is so good. For dessert we decided on a change of venue, and picked up some canonni to-go, which we ate on the Spanish Steps. We took a quick walk up Via Condotti before heading home, tired, but having successfully captured Rome as best as I think possible in just over one day!

Sunset from Gianicolo Hill

All of the pictures from our tourist weekend are here:
https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/6015594620817086977

Trying out AirBnb

This past September (2013), Daniele and I moved from the condo he owns to one his father owns. Daniele's is located in Monterotondo, which is still in the Providence of Rome, but just outside the City of Rome. We could have walked to the boarder from the condo, but we were definitely in the 'burbs. The boundaries of Rome have spread out over the years as the city has grown to reach out and touch any already established city, such as Monterotondo.

Our new home is inside Rome, though just outside the walls of the ancient city. We are 7-minutes as-the-google-walks from two Metro stops on the A/Red Line, which I like better than the B/Blue Line. One of those stops is Re di Roma, a busy traffic-circle / piazza featuring many notable establishments. From here you can see, and easily walk to the ancient wall holding in Rome's historical center, and enter at Basilica San Giovanni, which is the “duomo” of Rome (St. Peters is in the Vatican, which technically is not Rome). We are also sandwiched between the busy shopping streets of Appia Nuova, Taranto, and Tuscolana (Tuscolana Station is not a Metro stop, but it's a great way to get straight to the airport). We have all this nearby, but magically live in a little microcosm of a quiet neighborhood composed of old people and a hand full of families where the only noise disturbance is church bells.

Similar to our old place, our apartment is made up of an open kitchen/living room, a bathroom, a master bedroom, and a small bedroom (though the last place had more outside space including a garden, two large balconies, and parking). Where as our last place was newer and designed with this layout, our home now was built in 1942 with a different design. Our place was the doorman's apartment and we believe it is (by quite a bit) the smallest apartment in the building. Originally, you walked into the spacious living room with a door separating visitors from the rest of the home. The door leds to a little space with doors to each: the large bedroom, the bathroom, and the kitchen. The kitchen in turn leads to the balcony. When my father-in-law bought the place 10 years ago, he moved the kitchen to the living room and converted that space to a second (small) bedroom. This is a pretty common renovation now that society has accepted the kitchen as a gathering place, not something that should be hidden away. Fun fact, Italian Real Estate listings count “number of rooms”, but there is no uniform method of counting rooms. Some will only count rooms intended to be bedrooms, most will also count a living room, a few count every space including the kitchen and even bathroom.

Given our new, more central location and spare room we thought we would try out renting the extra space on AirBnb-- just as an experiment to see how it does. If it went well, maybe we could do it for an entire apartment. The spare room was the last to get the renovation treatment, acting as our safe/clean room while the rest of house underwent the spackleing/sanding/more sanding/and even more sanding that the place needed to recover from the 10 years of being rented to students and the *72* years of general chipping and decay. I fought to maintain and restore all of the original wood and brass rather than replace everything with plastic and aluminum like my husband and in-laws would have done.

Daniele found several other airbnb-like sites. I didn't want so much of our personal information spread out so wide, so I limited him to HouseTrip, which is very popular in Europe and particularly the UK, I believe. We did well with them, however, they just recently took down our listing and everyone else's who was renting just a single room in order to concentrate on just listing full apartments/homes. We still have guests coming (and even right now are hosting two) who booked from HouseTrip. So, we still haven't felt whatever effect losing their referrals will have.

We started last November and I had a few rules. First off, AirBnb is not like a hotel, where anyone can book a night, unless you want to set it up that way. Potential guests send a request for a stay that we have to pre-approve or deny. Only with a pre-approval can they then book. We do not sublet while away, many people use AirBnb this way, we do the exact opposite and will not take guests if we are not home. Similarly, Daniele works nights sometimes and I will not accept a booking where their first night here I will be home alone with them. It doesn't take too long to get a feel for someone, and if we got someone sketchy, this would give me time to realize something was up and make Daniele call in sick. I also turn people down who seem sketchy online. A horror story I read a long time ago about a women who Airbnb'ed out her NYC apartment while away, and whose home was destroyed by the renters/robbers later noticed how the guest's name was misspelled (something like Johgnson) and a few other indicators. I look for more complete profiles, with more methods of verification, and not accounts just opened today. Recently I've started asking people who request to stay and have new, blank accounts, if they could add some verifications and then ask again. After all, while we have a few reviews now, we were new once, too, and people gave us a chance.

It's easy for me to deny requests because we are not trying to keep the room full 100% of the time. Who would want house guests all of the time? I've priced the room out according to this idea. We're not the cheapest room you can book in the area. First off, do I want the people who look for the cheapest rooms staying with me and having my key? Not really. Second, there is enough demand that my pricing keeps the room full enough. It has to be worth what we're getting (the money) to clean out the room, wash and change the bedding and towels, wait around to greet them when they arrive, and share my bathroom and kitchen with them while they are here (and in some cases, deal with their strange requests). That's not nothing, if it was just a little bit of money I would be annoyed to do all that and never think it worth it when getting a request. But for the bit more that we charge, it feels like free money. It feels like getting $400 for just doing a load of laundry!

Everyone who has stayed with us has been really interesting and fun to meet. We had a brother and sister from San Paulo, a couple from Russia, a mother and son from Iowa, two gentlemen friends from India, three BU students studying abroad in Spain, two Italian girls here for a concert, two kids from Austria we housed in coordination with their Italian school, a father and son from Holland, an American couple living in Asia, and a bunch more. Each of these was the type of well-rounded, friendly, likes-to-travel person that you might meet in a hostel while traveling yourself. We got to live through their experiences and learn a bit about their worlds without even leaving the house. Not to say we become besties with everyone who stays. There is a wide spectrum of those who like to chat and those who prefer to keep to themselves. I have just been very presently surprised by how fun most guests can be.

There is also the consideration that Rome has lots to see and most of our guests spend morning to night out trying to seeing it all. Some have cooked meals at home, in general the older guests and the ones who stay longer have been more prone to do so. Many others we barely see, often just a quick exchange of greetings while they are coming or going.

We've been pretty successful, despite not exactly living across from the Coliseum or above the Spanish Steps. It seems there are plenty of people who would just as happily take the Metro a few stops or walk a bit further. We started off pretty slow in the end of fall and dead of winter. But then we got into spring-break season, and Easter, some big Rome/Vatican events like the Canonization, and now just the high tourist season of spring and summer. Right now we could easily book back to back if we wanted. Which, if you think about it is very impressive, that there are enough potential guests to match up with any weird opening, since we only have one room available. It happens enough now that we bought a second full set of sheets and towels, so we can turn over the room in the same day, while the linens hang dry.

I attribute a few things to our success. Besides entering tourist season, we have reviews now, which is going to make us more attractive to guests and send more requests our way. I also wrote a really, really clear description about our place (in my own mother-tongue English, which not all Italian listings can boast). I know I tend to avoid situations where I don't know what to expect, particularly when traveling. Personally, I would even pay more for a place where I felt confident in what I was going to find, than a place that is perhaps nicer but I'm unsure about a few things-- but maybe that is just nerdy me trying to avoid awkward situations. For example, if there are towels in the picture but it doesn't say if they are included, or I'm not sure if the address given is where I'm staying or their office where I pick up my key, how many others will be staying here, which areas are common areas, things like that. Our aforementioned mother and son guests complemented our place on exceeding their expectations and said that at their last room, there had been a couch in the picture (mother and son did not want to share a bed) but on arrival were told the couch is now in a different and more expensive room. My description highlights how close we are to the metro, that it's the metro line with most attractions, the grocery stores/restaurants/cafes nearby, that I work from home and will be able to let guests in just about any time (a known issue for Airbnb guests), and that Daniele has lived here 30 years and can help you figure out what to do during your stay. I also clearly state that it is a small room and what the shared bathroom and kitchen are all about, to manage expectations.

We have squeezed both a single bed and a full bed into that little room. This makes it a good layout for either couples or friends traveling together And while it would be cramped (and I always warn groups of three), three could fit in there and it's a bit harder finding rooms for three in Europe. We recently added a small extra fee for the third person, after we started turning down most of the groups of three, once again restoring the “worth it” balance. Though really, the few we have hosted have not been much different that the groups of two. It's just that 5 people sharing a bathroom has the potential to be too much.

We make an effort to keep the place immaculately clean. Which is the natural state of the apartment anyway, since Daniele and I have different pet-peeve things we like spotless (he likes clean floors, I could care less about floors but hate surfaces to have any dust or grime). Obviously this is good to do for reviews, but I have my own secret reason for it, too. People tend to clean up after themselves more when they are surrounded by cleanliness. All our guests have been pretty clean, one even commenting on not wanting to mess up our pristine apartment. So by doing the cleaning more often, we actually have to clean less by not having to clean up so much after them.

In summery, huge success. April was our best month to date, bringing in about $1500. All for a tiny room that we wouldn't even be using otherwise. The space could have been an office for me, but we have space in our large bedroom for an office-area and that kind of money is like a salary in itself. Most likely winters will always be more bleak (though I think having reviews will help next year), but that's fine because it is nice to not have guests, too. Someday we will have to shut down when it is time to expand our family and convert the room into a nursery. In the meantime, it is awesome money for just doing some extra laundry and a fun experience in itself.

Changing Device Timezones

I spend months at a time in different timezones. However, I often won't change my clocks. Sometimes someone will see my computer clock is wrong and point it out as if I don't know how easy it is to change. The problem is it totally messes up my calendar.

I view my calendar on my Android phones, tablet, and laptop. My phones change their clock on their own. I also have cameras and a wrist watch with clocks-- but those I always change since there is no calendar issue.

I use Google Calendar, here is how they handle timezones:
http://support.google.com/calendar/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2367918

The meat and potatoes of that link:
“Whenever you create an event, Calendar converts it from your time zone to UTC time, using currently known conversion rules. By using one universal time for all events, Calendar can keep all of your guests’ calendars consistent regardless of which time zones they're in. When we display the event on your calendar, it is converted from UTC to appear in your own time zone.

If you have a recurring meeting that spans across different time zones, then its time always remains constant for the organizer, and will shift for guests whenever their time difference with the organizer changes. That’s why if you’re in London and attending a weekly meeting that was created by your New York colleagues at 10am NY time, it will always be at 10am for NY, almost always at 3pm for you, but at 2pm during that particular week in early November.” [“particular week”, reference to US and GB change their clocks for Daylight Savings Time on different dates]

Indeed, Google is trying to solve a complex problem here. That's cool for the people who work at Google, who use Google Calendar a bit different from people like me. Personally, I don't have many recurring international meetings. Actually, pretty much all my events are just for myself. But hey, that's me.

Here is the type of use case I run into. I have a Nexus 7 tablet. This device currently is what plays my morning alarm, because unlike my phone which can get forgotten in a purse on the other side of the room, he lives by my bed so I can read him in the morning. I actually was getting a bit annoyed looking at the time three hours off (I just came from NJ to San Francisco) so I changed his clock from EST to PST. The next morning, I woke up before my alarm and was reading news in bed waiting for my alarm to go off before I got up to get breakfast. I wanted to dismiss it and not wake anyone else up. It never went off, but I had forgotten about changing the clock the day before so just wrote it off and moved on with my day. About three hours later I started hearing chimes. My tablet had changed the time of my alarm from 8:30 to 11:30 (or rather to 8:30 EST, 11:30 PST the same UTC time). Does this seem like it should be the default behavior? Do most people set alarms to notify themselves of some world-wide event (perhaps an space-shuttle launch), so they would need that time to adjust to their local time? Or are most people just looking to wake up around the same time every morning?

Those are alarms, it behaves the same for calendar events. So, if while in Italy, I make a doctors appointment for 3 PM on a Wednesday for when I'm going to be in NJ, I can put it in my calendar while still in Italy and my computer clock is set to Italian time. Then when I come to NJ and change my clock, that 3 PM appointment will jump to 9 AM on my calendar. Confusing, no?

I could have put the event in at 9PM when I was in Italy, as 9PM in Italy is 3PM in NJ, my target time for this event. The problem with this work around is I have to look at it on my calendar with that weird time up until I change the computer clock. That is really confusing for scheduling other events around it.

Fear of this behavior (and that I will not see something scrolled down on my smaller laptop screen) encourages me to put important events in my Calendar as all day events, with the time in the details. But unless this has been fixed since I last saw it, and this behavior I definitely consider a bug, an all day event I create in one time zone will actually change to a 3 AM to 3 AM (for example) event when I change timezones. If an event is July 8th all day, then it is July 8th all day in any timezone, IMHO.

I wish there was a way to opt-out of the time-zone syncing behavior, for my whole calendar, or for non-shared events, or for anything. As far as I can see, it's not an option. Until then, I just keep everything on EST.

UPDATE 10/24/12
The very smart Marc D responded to this post with

Marc Dougherty ‏@muncus
@kait3210 not sure if it is any better, but "use home time zone" in calendar settings that will always show the same time zone. Maybe?

It took me several days to figure what on earth he was talking about because I manage my Calendar 90% from my laptop and use my devices (phone, tablet) to make sure I'm not forgetting anything. I'm not normally playing with Calendar settings on these Android devices. I use Android because it syncs so easily with my calendar and I don't have to work to make it work-- like setting up Exchange in my iPhone days.

But sure enough, In an ANDROID Calendar, you can go to the three-dot-menu-button, Settings, General settings. Once there, I found a little check box to "Use home time zone" as well as one right below it to set your "Home time zone". As soon as I did this on my Nexus 7, all my appointments (remember, I changed this device to PST) jumped back to the correct time. Awesome solution.

This is an Android feature, the web version has no such check box. However, looking closer, I can set my Calendar timezone independently from my laptop time zone. It is in gear-shaped-button, Settings, General-tab, "Your current time zone" setting. Here I can set it to always be EST, or even add both EST and PST and both times display in two columns, but no non-US timezones. I can't believe I missed this feature! I only had to dismiss Google asking me if I wanted it to change my Calendar timezone when I changed my laptop timezone just now-- which I've never seen before, so maybe this is a newer feature.

It's nice to have my laptop clock on the right time. Just in time for me to blow out of town in another week.

End of Istanbul Trip

Istanbul post three of three

Daniele and I went to Istanbul back in 2012. I took 1,221 photos during the trip, which were so overwhelming I kept putting off dealing with them. But we finally tackled them and got the album down to the best 366 images. This is the last of three posts from this trip.

On our fourth full day, we got up early and walked to Fatih Mosque, in the Western District. This was the first great imperial mosque built after the conquest by Mehmet the Conqueror in 1470. It was rebuilt in 1766 after an earthquake, again 1782 after a fire and no longer has the same plan. We also saw the tombs of Mehmet and his wife.

Being once the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Istanbul has aqueducts. Unfortunately, Istanbul does not seem to hold its historical wonders in very much reverence. These stunning structures were marred with piles of garbage beneath the arches.

The Basilica Cistern I visited alone as well. It was built in 532 by Roman Emperor Justinian. It served as the water supply for the Great Palace (now gone) and the surrounding buildings. It was out of use and forgotten before the conquest by the Turks.

The Cistern is impressive at 65m wide, 143m long, and containing 336 columns (taken from ruined buildings). It once held 80,000 cubic meters of water delivered via 20km of aqueducts from a reservoir near the black sea.

It is dark inside and water drips on your head. People crowd the few interesting things to see: a few particular decorative columns, and a glass serpent structure brought in from Venice.

The Cistern was forgotten until it was rediscovered in 1545 by Petrus Gullius who was researching Byzantine antiquities. Locals said they could get water, and even fish, by lowering buckets in their basement floors (in fact there were some big fish down there). He asked around until he found a house were he accessed the Cistern through the basement. After rediscovered, the Turks used the cistern for a dumping ground for garbage and even bodies. It was eventually restored in 1955 and 1960 and 1985. In 1963, “James Bond: From Russia With Love” was filmed here. And finally in 1987 the city opened it to the public.

We then went to The Bazaar. I looked at some scarves and ceramic goods, but didn't buy.

And then it was time to start our journey back home. We checked out of hotel, took the tram and ferry to Kadakoy. Walked around with our bags, through the local market, had a late lunch. I got some jasmine tea balls that open to flowers in how water and we got some pistachio soap for Daniele's mother. We took the bus to airport, where we were delayed again. But we finally made it back home to Italy. Ready for Easter tomorrow!

Pictures from the whole trip (only the best 366): https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/5975883683758142577

Istanbul Continued

Istanbul post two of three

Daniele and I went to Istanbul back in 2012. I took 1,221 photos during the trip, which were so overwhelming I kept putting off dealing with them. But we finally tackled them and got the album down to the best 366 images. This is the second of three posts from this trip.

Our first full day in Istanbul we started with the Topkapi Palace, which took the whole morning. The complex of buildings is separated into different courts, each with more restricted access then the previous. All of the buildings are ornate, mostly decorated with tiles.

There are a lot of street vendors in Istanbul, many serve food. Grilled corn is common, in fact Italians sometimes call corn “grano turko” or Turkish Grain. Also snack breads, we tried some of these for a fast lunch today. One somewhat pretzel-like covered in sesame seeds and another that was bread-y like a bagel, but airy like a doughnut.

For the afternoon we crossed the Galata Bridge and went exploring through Karakoy. We saw the Galata Tower and this side of the “Golden Horn”. This area has almost no tourists compared to Sultanahmet.

We stopped at an outdoor cafe and I tried a Turkish coffee. My parent's had described to me how the coffee in Greece was thick, something you could as easily chew as drink. I expected this could be similar, possibly pretty gross, but definitely worth trying. I also thought I remembered a Turkish friend describing that Turkish coffee is made by adding powder to hot water directly, like we make instant coffee, but it's not like instant coffee, it's good, if you like it. At first is seemed like a slightly grainy espresso; it was served in an espresso sized cup. When I reached the end, I reached all the coffee grains in a thick mush. Now, I didn't know the etiquette of what to do here, or if I had not taken the coffee correctly up to this point to arrive here (it was not served with a spoon). Was I supposed to stir and distribute the grains throughout the drink? However, I did try to drink a bit of the mush. It tasted fine, like the coffee before it, except for the texture. The texture was a mouth-full of coffee grains and I couldn't finish the tiny cup. Daniele continued to make fun of me for trying it, since there is clearly no coffee better than Italian.

[Edit: I followed up later and asked a Turk: you are not supposed to drink/eat the grains. Oh, well.]

We went to Tunnel Square for dinner, to a restaurant recommended in the Lonely Planet Book. They had different maze plates, which I love. Even though Daniele picked it, once he got there he decided he didn't like it and refused to eat with me. I did not take kindly to this.

After we decided to walk home, which was pretty far, back across the bridge and everything. Probably should have taken the tram, my feet are killing me today!

Observation, Istanbul has lots of cats. Everywhere.

On Tuesday we started in the Blue Mosque. The mosque is divided into a tourist part, a lady part in the back, and the main center area for men to pray. Anyone entering had to take off their shoes and women have to cover their heads.

Aya Sophia is just across from the Blue Mosque. Daniele had already seen it so I went in alone (it is paid admission). This was a Catholic cathedral in Roman times that was converted to a mosque, and is now a museum. The original structure was very Byzantine in style, only the mosaics had been painted over in black (which made me want to cry) and there was large wood disks of Muslim symbols from the time it was a mosque.

After we walked North to the Spice Market where we bought tea. Then up the hill by the University and Suleymaniye Mosque near Beyzit Square and Mosque. We also stopped by Theodosius Forum, Little Aya Sophia, and finally the Hippodrome, where about 20 people offered to clean Daniele's shoes.

Pictures from the whole trip (only the best 366): https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/5975883683758142577

Leaving for Istanbul

Istanbul post one of three

Daniele and I went to Istanbul back in 2012. I took 1,221 photos during the trip, which were so overwhelming I kept putting off dealing with them. But we finally tackled them and got the album down to the best 366 images. This is the first of three posts from this trip.

Yesterday Daniele and I went out with his parents and their friends to Tor San Lorenzo for the birthday of Sergio, or the the 'New Pasquino'. He writes poems in strict roman dialect using this pen name. Pasquino was a 'talking' statue in Rome long ago.

The town is on the beach and there is a fish restaurant they go to there. The owner is a fisherman and used to just sell the fish, but then started to cook them up, too. We stayed here together last Easter and ate until we had to be rolled out. Sergio's father has a house near here, which is perfect for lethargic after-lunch activities.

That night I stayed with the Isidori's and Daniele worked a night shift. We left first thing for the airport. Unfortunately our fight was incredibly delayed. When we finally got on the plane, there was a problem with its computer and we had to wait longer on the runway for it to be fixed.

We arrived, gathered our things, and headed for Istanbul's city center. From this airport, we had to take a bus, to a ferry, to a tram. As we entered the ferry it started to rain, and was pouring the whole time-- in the stings your face way. So not the picturesque boat ride I hoped for.

Didn't get to do anything the first day because of rain and the late hour. We did go get some dinner and I had some very yummy hummus and felafel. We also bought a mix of baklava flavors (pistachio, nut, chocolate) from “Baklavaci Muhamed SAID”.

Pictures from the whole trip (only the best 366): https://plus.google.com/photos/+KaitlynHanrahanIsidori/albums/5975883683758142577

Costa Rica

Daniele and I left for Costa Rica on Tuesday, January 25th. We flew five hours from Newark to San Jose. In the San Jose airport I got a prepaid SIM card from the local phone company ICE and a rental car from Thrifty. The phone was mostly to use for Google Maps, since there are no maps to load onto Tom Tom or anything. It turned out not to be too hard; most of the time there was only one road. We drove to the city of Puntarenas where we waited for a ferry to Paquera. From there we drove to the “large” city of Cobano where they have a gas station and bank (watch out!), and then finally to Montezuma. Pretty much a full day of travel.

Our first beach day we went to Playa de la Manchas, which turned out to be my favorite beach. Not very crowded, the water was nice, there were tide pools, and lots of shade in dry sandy places.

The next day we went to Cabo Blanco National Park, a nature reserve near Montezuma. We took the longer hike that ended at a pretty white sand beach. On the way we saw howler monkeys (who make a pretty scary howl), white faced monkeys, and an iguana.

We continued to go to new beaches in Montezuma. Our third day we went to Playa Los Cederos. This beach has a pond behind the sand with a rope swing, but we avoided it since we suspected the water was not very clean. The locals liked it though. Along with the local families, we had a picnic in the shade by this pool. In the afternoon we went back to Playa de la Manchas.

Our forth day we went to either Playa Montezuna or Playa Grande. They are the two beaches right by Montezuna center. One is more of a boat port and we were never sure which was which. Montezuma's beaches tend to be sandy coves with rocks closing them in on the sides and forest behind them. We walked down this beach along the water, then onto a forest path, then along the beach, then over some rocks, more beach, and so on looking for the perfect beach. We found a cute waterfall along the way, too. We ended at a spot pretty far down (possible not Playa Montezuma/Grande anymore). It had long rolling waves and lots of surfers. In the afternoon we headed back and went to see the “Cascades de Montezuma” AKA the Montezuma Waterfalls.

Our last day in Montezuma we drove down the peninsula to Mal Pias. This town was isolated for ages without roads going to it. Now it is knows for beautiful beaches and surfing schools. I was surprised when we got there that it was more built up than Montezuma (though that is not saying much). All that we had to do to get to Montezuma, you have to go farther to get to Mal Pias. We went to a few different places there.

The next morning we left at 3:45 AM from Montezuma to make the first ferry. Once back on the main land we drove South down the coast; went through Jaco but did not stop. It is the biggest city we had seen since we left the airport. We went through Quepos right before we arrived in Manuel Antonio. Quepos is the Cobano to Manuel Antonio. More locals, less tourists. I wasn't very big on leaving so early in the morning, but it worked out nice as we got to watch sunrise on the ferry and made it to the beach in time to still enjoy the day. We took some sun at the beach right in Manuel Antonio, Playa Espadrillas. For dinner we went to Quepos. We ended up at an Italian owned restaurant called “Pure Vida”, which is also the Costa Rican mantra. The owner, Marco made friends with Daniele and shared his life story. The pizza was really good. It had that Italian taste that is hard to describe, probably just fresh ingredients.

The next day we went to the Manuel Antonio National Park. This is something I was really looking forward to because it was a real rain forest and the paths go along beaches only accessible through the park. This is where I was finally able to see a sloth! They are hard to spot since they don't move around enough to make noise, but other people who had hired guides pointed them out or I would just look where they were looking. There were also tons of white faces monkeys. We saw them along the path. A family of them was practically putting on a show by the first beach, running back a forth and up the trees. One chased Daniele back the path; he seemed a little less friendly than the beach monkeys. We also saw a few iguanas, a raccoon, howler monkeys, more than I can remember. We packed a lunch that day and came back to the first beach where there were picnic tables in the shade to eat. While we were putting everything down and settling in to eat, a raccoon sneaked up and grabbed our lunch bag before we even saw it. He was too fast and got away before we even knew what happened. A minute later, someone saw him and chased him and kindly handed me back the raccoon-ripped plastic bag. I threw it out and we just had dinner early.

The next day we had a late start because we had to wait for the Thrifty man to fix a problem with our rental. There was a problem with a sensor and the break lights were stuck on, killing the battery. We had previously decided to go to Marino Ballene National Park in Uvita, where there is whale watching and nice beaches. Also Daniele had been saying how he wished we had time to go farther south. But with the late start we decided to go somewhere closer. Then on the drive I fell asleep and Daniele drove there anyway. I hadn't brought binoculars, thinking we were not going, so we didn't see any whales. I had crazy heat exhaustion and when I went to the shade saw a scorpion. I have a feeling we both though this was something the other wanted to do.

The next day we drove to Volcano Arenal. We did not leave crazy early this time, knowing already that we would do the volcano hike the next day. The drive was long and on bad roads with traffic. Worse yet, as we left the clear blue beaches for the mountains it was cloudy and rainy. Daniele was already against giving up even these two days at the beach to see a volcano. So this was not a very pleasant drive. He made it very clear that he did not understand why anyone would want to go to a volcano. That there are volcanoes in Italy. That we should probably just turn back because of the weather. That he didn't like doing this terrible drive to a place he didn't want to be. But we did eventually get there. The bad weather turned out to be a morning thing; it cleared up in the afternoon and did the same the next day. The little town next to the volcano, La Fortuna, was filled with tourists, which fascinated Daniele. He really thought only I was crazy and wanted to see this silly volcano. We walked around the town that afternoon and did the hike at Arenal the next day. In the morning it was too foggy, so we drove around the lake to see that and kill some time. Then once it started to clear up we went to the National Park. It was clear and warm while we were there. We did all the hikes to the two view points. The path goes over the lava flows and we had our lunch on big lava rocks at the second view point. Unfortunately we were there during the day so we couldn't see any of the red lava flows this volcano is famous for.

Our last day we fit in a little everything. Daniele really wanted to see the beach one last time and I wanted to see the capital city of San Jose. So we left very early and stopped at one of the beaches right where the highway reaches the pacific coast. We took the sun for a few hours, then drove back to Alajuela. Alajuela is next to San Jose and where the airport is. We dropped off our rental car and checked into a bed and breakfast near the airport. Then we took a bus to San Jose.

The big thing I wanted to do was the central market. There were lots of food and spices and all sorts of things there. We ate at this strange sort of dinner inside. There were a few similar to it. The place was circular and people sat along the bar outside of it while the waitresses ran everything inside. The food came from a dumbwaiter that led overhead where they had built a second floor and I suppose the kitchen was. We sat by the overflowing sink and when I asked for silverware one of the ladies took some from the dirty pile, wiped it with a towel, and handed it to me. When I gave her a face and did not take it she wiped it some more, surpassing the amount of time and effort it would have taken to just wash it. When I still did not look pleased she gave my a cup of hot water put the fork and knife in and handed me the set up with an “aqua calda” and a smile. The food was actually good, but that really spoiled it for me. Like my dad says, you get to see how clean your silverware is, you don't even get to see how they prepare your food.

After the market we walked around the city a bit. We saw a few churches, a souvenir market, Plaza de Cultura, Teatro National, and some more I can't remember. At Plaza de Democrazia there was a free metal concert so the area was full of Costa Rican kids dressed in all black or holding their skateboards.

Our flight was at 7 AM, so we left nice and early to come back to the US. I asked some women who worked for Continental if I could bring Daniele in the “US Citizens” line at border control. I was all excited I could take him in the short and fast Americans-only line; show him how nice it is. Unfortunately I think the passengers on out flight got through faster on the non-citizens side, it was so slow. The worker distributing people to lines was doing a terrible job. And the line kept coming to a stop with people with problems, not that we can talk. We went to the agent together, since we were traveling together and that was what I thought we were supposed to do based on what the Continental staff told me. The man flipped out. Seriously lost his head. After saying one of us had to go back in line, he got out of his booth to go yell at the whole line and say no one else better come up together if they are not married. When he came back to look at my passport I said I was sorry he was having a bad day, to which he replied I was the only reason for his bad day, me and people like me coming up in pairs when we should not be. He had no way to hold me, so I went on and waited for Daniele. He wouldn't let Daniele through because he did not have a print out of his itinerary; not the 'boarding pass' with the same information, the 'flight itinerary' which apparently it would have said when I bought our tickets that I needed to print for non-citizens to re-enter the country. Daniele had a million other papers, more than he needed, but not this. The border control agent called me over to ask if I had it since I bought our tickets. He repeated how I should have known better to print it out well past when I started crying. I had it on my computer, but he wouldn't look at it, “his job is just stamp and go”. So Daniele had to go on his own to wherever they take people who require more than “stamp and go” and I was not allowed to come even though I had the document in question with me on my computer. I barely got to yell out a “where can I find him after?” as they were forcing me out of border control to baggage claim and him god knows where. It turned out to be fine. Whoever he dealt with in there wasn't a complete asshole on a power trip, unlike the first agent, and let him through immediately. He actually stayed and translated for some girl-- while I was downstairs freaking out. We were probably the third group to require this extra attention in our line, and it was similar in the line next to us (we jumped over but it made no difference), and that is just the lots of short lines in front on the windows after the one long winding line.

[Edit] Link to pictures from this trip:
https://picasaweb.google.com/kaitlyn.hanrahan/20110125CostaRica#