集體(吹水)回憶

Andrew came back from Calgary en route to CA and then leaving for Hong Kong going back to work. A few of us who are also leaving Seattle in the near future gathered and had hot pot on this not so hot summer day. We had a swell time, singing a few good oldies at the end...

And I'm glad that the person who purchased the record player didn't come pick it up last night, so that I can play Leslie's version of 《似水流年》 one last time:

望著海一片 滿懷倦　無淚也無言
望著天一片 只感到 情懷亂
我的心又似小木船
遠景不見　但仍向著前

誰在命裡主牢我　每天掙扎　人海裡面
心中感嘆　似水流年
不可以留住昨天

＊留下只有思念　一串串永遠纏
浩瀚煙波裡我懷念　懷念往年
外貌早改變　處境都變　情懷未變

Good luck to us all!

****

Thanks Peggy for getting more information on Macau:

禮記雪糕
地址:荷蘭園大馬路12號至12A
電話:28375781

莫義記大菜糕
地址:氹仔官也街9A

瑪嘉烈蛋撻店
地址:賈伯樂提督街41A
電話:28527791

沙利文餐廳
地址:南灣大馬路512號
電話:28881881


Some information about Macau can be found here.

世界變大了...

I'm planning a quick Taiwan trip right after the Rainbow Service Trip... will cross the year of 2008 over there! I'm getting excited now. Finally I can try out various good food in Taiwan!! Too bad I will only stay there for two days :( Will get started planning anyways!

***

Did some research on the good restaurants in Macau. Here's the information I gathered so far:

九如坊吃葡國菜
‧電話：(853)331-818
‧地址：板樟堂巷3號地下（本島）
‧營業時間：12:00-23:00（周一公休）
‧推薦美食：海鮮焗馬介休82元、焗釀海鮮龍利94元、芥末烤羊鞍88元、焗鴨飯98元

六記粥麵　
電話：853-559627
沙梨頭仁慕巷1號D地下　(29號碼頭對面)
Have you tried 錦滷雲吞 before? I miss it so much!!

誠昌飯店
地址:澳門乙仔官也街28-30號(在大利來記咖啡室附近)
電話:825323;827589
營業時間:中午12:00-晚上12:00
水蟹粥

大利來記豬扒包
澳門氹仔巴波沙前地18號
TEL:827150
限量豬扒包下午三點準時新鮮出爐!!

義順牛奶有限公司
TEL:573-638
澳門議事亭前地7號
營業時間：11:00~23:00
雙皮燉奶!!


我流晒口水喇!!

***

I guess I look like any ethnic group but Chinese--a lady came in today trying to buy the bullet planter asked me if I am a Yugoslavian?! The other day a boy came in and take my bedframe away asked if I was from Cambodia/Vietnam?!

And this is the most rediculous... I got an invitation asking me to join the Indian club on Flickr....

Sigh....

That said, although the lady has wrong eyes on my birth place, she KNOWS the stuff I have in my house.... we chatted a lot.. bascially walked through every single item and talk about the stories behind the items. Too bad she wasn't able to get any discount from me :-) She even wanted to get my vintage DANSK candlesticks for free!

Of course I didn't fall into this "trap"... I'm happy though knowing that my stuffs are going to the right hands who will take good care of them. It's sad, but I can't bring anything with me to the grave anyway... this day of parting with my collection will come sooner or later :P

More about Lyon...

Oh, btw, when you're in Lyon, don't miss the central local butchery market "La Boucherie Centrale" located at:

102, cours lafayette - Halle de Lyon
69003 Lyon

It has a lot of meats there, but what you'd be most interested in is the sauages--one of the traditional foods of Lyon (another one is beef tripes :) You got to try their 血腸!

From 蛇果 Travel:
現時La Halle de Lyon是全法國優秀貨品最齊備的街市，市內的餐館和星級餐廳的廚師，都前來選購心水材料，集合各式肉檔、芝士檔、蔬菜檔、魚檔、酒鋪等等，尚有餅店、小酒吧、生蠔吧、三文魚吧等，是可以讓大家即買即食的地方。
營業時間：
星期二至四7:30am-12nn、3pm-7pm 星期五及六7:30am-7pm 星期日7:30am-12nn

地址：
102, Cours Lafayette

交通：
地鐵PartDieu站下車，徒步8分鐘。

You can fix all your lunches there for a good price.

This article from 蛇果 is pretty good too.

就是這一間

Woke up by a phone call at 5 this morning--my sister in Hong Kong who is going to travel in France wanted to know if I have any recommendations on restaurant in France. I guess it'd be worth if I blog the information instead. So, here you go:

In Nice:
This is the restaurant I mentioned earlier that has a very long line. It is tucked away from a little square in the old town of Nice. The food here is very cheap, and I guess the quality should be good given that the line is so long. A quick search on the web though warned that their puddings are over-priced.

If you like dessert (which you should be :) go to the little square and find a gelato/crepe store that is crowded with people (there are many such stores, but usually only one of them has a long line).

Restaurant du Gesu
Address: Restaurant du Gesu, 1 place du Jesus
Directions: Just off rue Droite which is the road that runs straight through the Old Town, north to south between rue St Francois and rue de la Prefecture. It's on the same road as the famous Palais Lascaris, which will be sign-posted. (closed Sundays and cash only)

Make sure you don't miss the beautiful sunset at the beach! I would go for a dinner after 9pm because of that...

In Lyon:
It's difficult to find a place that has bad cooking in Lyon, except that if you order beef tripes like I did--so never ever order internal organs in Lyon and you'll be fine.

Here's one that is a little pricy:
La Mere Brazier
12, Rue Royale
69001 Lyon, France
04 78 28 15 49
04 78 28 63 63

Here's one that is less expensive:
Cafe Comptoir Abel
25, Rue Guynemer
69002 Lyon, France
04 78 37 46 18

I tried their Quenelle mere Brazier (a pike mousse/"dumpling" on white sauce) but I hate it. I couldn't find, or even tasted, any fish in this huge mass of flour. It's recommended by the registrar of the cooking school though, so I assume other dishes are good.

Notice that most restaurants do not open for dinner until 7:30pm.

Of course, you have to try out the restaurant Saisons located inside Institut Paul Bocuse. I think it's the best in town for the price!! Enjoy a three-hour meal in this peaceful Château! Notice that the restaurant closes on Wednesdays.

Call ahead to reserve: +33 (0)4 72 18 02 20 (English spoken)

If you are taking the bus, take Metro Line D (direction Gare de Vaise) to Gorge de Loup, then take the Bus (TCL) Line 3 (direction Dardilly-Le Jubin) to Ecully le Trouillat. There are two Line 3 buses from Gorge de Loup, get on the bus with the correct direction. Also the bus stop names are spelled out on the sign of each individual stop, so you don't have to speak French to get off at the right stop... the challenging part though, is that you have to find the way walking to the school. Ask the locals and they should know. The walk is only 15 minutes or so after getting off the bus.

You can also take Bus Line 55 (direction Ecole Centrale) from a different Metro station to Ecully Le Trouillat. The bus stop is closer to the school than Line 3.

Here's a map with directions to the school.

Pick up a Metro and Bus map from a Tourist Information center when you arrive.

Actually, it's much easier if you take a cab :) Here's the address:


Institut Paul Boch
Château du Vivier - BP 25
69131 Ecully Cedex - France

In Paris:
I didn't get to try out the restaurants in Paris. For one thing, it's kind of expensive comparing to Lyon, and I didn't have much time eating. But if you want to spend 140EUR for two for a lunch (which I'm sure you won't :), you can try

La Tour d'Argent
15-17 Quai de Tournelle
75005 Paris
+33(0) 1 43 54 23 31

It's a short walk right across the river of Notre Dame.

Of course, there are many restaurants along Champ D'Alysee.

Oh, when you're in Pairs, make sure you go to the Paris Opéra (or National Academy of Music) and get a ticket for that night's show. Usually it's not expensive (20 EUR), and the box office is super helpful to get you a cheap ticket with good seats.

And you can't miss a classical concert in the Sainte-Chapelle! It costs 25 EUR (but the regular entry fee is already 7.5 EUR, so it's worth it!). It's an unforgetable experience sitting in this historic building surrounded by stained glass listening to classical music!

Hope the information helps. Have a great trip!!

(argh, you made me start missing France... it's indeed a country I would like to go back some day)

最美的平凡

Is home!

It's good that apart from the long wait in the lines, the London bombing didn't affect me too much--although my flight was delayed for more than two hours.

Did a lot of catch up after coming back. Will hit the road again to Whistler this coming Sunday since my brother is coming over...

The whole world + The work = The whole world

Love this statement displayed using neon lights in the Tate Modern. It's such a positive-negative contradiction, isn't it? I love this museum, epecially the last piece of work done by Matisse when he's confined to bed through illness during the last year of his life. Both his passion and the final work are intoxicating. We used to study his painting during the color photography class, learning color relationship in his work. This final piece is definetly the best case of his talnet of making use of color.

Woke up at 5am today. It's been a long day and tiring but everything I saw was so exciting that keeps me awake all the way. I finished almost all sights except London Bridge, which I am planning to visit it early tomorrow morning before packing up. The British Museum is good and a lot of great treasures are there, but after visiting so many museums within the past few weeks, not all displays are as interesting...

At night I went to watch The Drowsy Chaperone, a comdy/musical that is really funny.

I think I like London the most among all other cities I visited. It's such a lively city filled with energy and there is a lot going on to keep you busy--but yet, you can always quickly escape from the busy city life going to see a musical, or enjoy an afternoon in the great museums. Or just indulge yourself in the St. James Park or along the river bank.

I wish I will come back one day. But now, I can't wait anymore going back home. I will fly back tomorrow afternoon from LHR, should be back to Seattle by 9pm--if the American customs allows my entry...

Bring me home, bring me peace

I love London! It's such a lively, busy city. People here seem to be more "civilized", more polite, and a lot more stylish than Paris and other cities in France and Italy. My hostel is located very close to the SOHO area, which is filled with good restaurants and pubs. All the theatres and the China Town are nearby.

The food in China Town isn't good, as expected, but costs a lot less than I thought. I can even afford going for a late night Vietnamese noodle soup.

I went to Leicester Square to get a discounted musical ticket. It's very difficult to get one as I was there 30 minutes before any show starts. I chose Les Miserables, even though I watched it once in Seattle. There is a lot of songs I love in this musical. It turned out to be really good. I almost cried out in the finale when Valjean was dying--every one who died in the story died with something accomplished, and they died without any regret. Yeah, it's true that the students died without a successful revolution, but at least they fought for their dream...

Tomorrow will be very busy as I will try to pack all the sights into one day, and catch another muscial (may be Fame) at night.

Something left undone in Paris

I have a strong feeling that I will come back to Paris and London some day. It's way too short to stay in these cities for a few days (I can't imagine I can fully experience London in less than a day).

The next time I am in Paris, I will definitely try out the canard a la rouennaise (a.k.a. "blood duck" in Chinese), which essentially is duck cooking in its own sauce made by crunching its semi-cooked internal organs and bones, etc. A cruel process, but it's one of the most sophisticated French cooking method. The machine they use to crunch the stuffs costs several thousands EUR, if one can be found on the market. There is only a handful of such machines in Paris. If you're in the area, you can try out this restaurant:

La Tour d'Argent
15-17 Quai de Tournelle
75005 Paris
+33(0) 1 43 54 23 31

It's a short walk right across the river of Notre Dame (a sight I left unvisited :)

OK, I'm all set for London. I'm not sure how many sights I can visit, but the British Museum and Tate Modern are on top of the list. I am also planning to see a musical or a play.

And have my dinners in China Town :)

Starving in Paris

No kidding... I am starving now... didn't have anything eaten for 12 hours and now it's passed mid-night. Not that I am running out of money, but it was a day fully packed:

Went to Musee d'Orsay today and spent seven hours there. It was fascinating! I spent a lot of time in Monet's room. I love all his paintings--so real but also very expressive and imaginative. A true talent. I was also touched by a video showing Renoir using his almost paralized hands (because of serious arthritis) working on sculpture with the help of his assistant!

Then I went to the Opera House trying my luck to get a seat for tonight's performance and luckily I was able to watch a ballet performance in this prestigious building. Too bad I got a seat in a box, right on the side of the hall--which means that I have to stand up in order to get a full view of the stage, which I did... Oh well, the show wasn't as good as I thought, so it wasn't worth the extra money to get a better seat anyway.

Then it was 10pm already, still haven't eaten anything, but I know it's the last night I can get a birds eye view of Paris. So I hurried to Eiffel Tower and trying to go up to the top. Unfortunately the top floor was closed and the line was very long. I waited for over an hour to get to the first floor, and found out that the "City of light" is really nothing comparing to Hong Kong or other big Asian cities. A huge disappointment.

Paris is such a huge city with so much stuff to visit and experience. Staying four nights here is definitely not enough. The people I met here are very talented: a 23-year-old German who just graduated from a law school, a young dancer from Brazil who speaks fluent French and German.... all of a sudden, I found myself being a frog in the bottom of the well for too long. But I guess it's never too late to improve myself right :) The first thing I wanna do, is to learn French. Although I may not get a chance to study here, French is very useful in a lot of aspects--from learning art history to learning the names on restaurant menus/cook books.

I can't say that France is more scenic than Italy, but in a lot of ways though, I like living in France much more than in Italy.

Will be heading to London tomorrow, and I'm all prepared for the expensive living there--for two days.

Small world...

Guess what, I met this guy again unexpectedly--the third time. The first two times in Florence, and then we went to Siena together... and this morning I met him again in a sight. He was asking his friend to take a picutre of him, and I was right behind him. I didn't say hi though since he seemed to be in a hurry. Oh well, I guess he'll be surprised finding me in the background!

Didn't do much in the afternoon, the big thing was going to Sainte-Chapelle to attend a Vivaldi concert. This is the best place for classical music! The 360' stained glass definitely made the concert and outstanding one--although I think the one in Venice was better than this group.

When I was waiting in the line, an old French lady complained to me the Americans were talking too loud--ha, I guess that's what I like about Europe--being "mellow".

It's been raining all night long, so I didn't go to Eiffel Tower. I did go to L'Arche de la Defense, which I think is awesome! Finally I got to see some modern architecture.

It's windy and cold these days. Very different from Italy.

I have tried for hours looking for two specific restaurants for lunch, but both are closed today... hopefully they'll open tomorrow.

Exhausting Louvre

Louvre is extremly exhausting! I just spent 7 hours in it and I still haven't finished all the floors... yup, I have left the top floor undone since it's not that interesting I think, and there are way too many people as the tours start coming in after lunch. I think I have seen way too many sculptures and Renaissance/Gothic type of art recently, so I'm not sure if I want to see more in Versailles. I may do Orsay museum...

What else can I tell about Paris? I don't know... I think I haven't experienced enough about the city, and at this stage of the trip, all I want to do is have a good sleep--on my own bed! I started to missing all the "good" Chinese food in Seattle, and the chopsticks at home. And finally I start to appreciate the fact that eating with Ho Gor every night is actually a blessing. Oh, and of course, the toilet seat: they finally come back in France, but they don't usually have the paper seat cover--I wasn't aware how fortunate I am when I was in America where the worst public washroom provides seat cover!

The metro in Paris is complicated (well, as compared to the bus systems in Seattle, or MTR in Hong Kong...), and some lines are kind of rundown. The transition isn't that seamless. Good though the signs are well-posed so I didn't get lost yet.

Met a few friends in the hostel who are also solo travelers. Every one of them are very surprised when I mentioned that I worked for seven years already... They all thought I'm 23 years old, maximum!

So tired, not even physically but also mentally/spiritually. I can't imagine how people can be away from home for three months doing nothing but traveling...

Hum, do I like France? I don't know... although living in France seems to be better than in Italy (because of the better train and cleaner streets), Italy seems to be more senic overall--and in closer proximity too.

I will have to make a flight transfer in Toronto when I go back to Seattle. We'll see if I can stop by home.

Going back to Seattle will be another hectic start... although the house is rented out (principalling :) but I still need to clean it up, fix a few things, and sell my stuffs. Packing would be another major task I'll have to get done soon...

Arrived the City of Light

So Parisians haven't changed much of their attitude... I heard a bad story when buying tickets from the metro station, and the same happened to me too, unfortunately. Oh well...

Went to This place called Beaune, a city in the Burgundy region. It's kind of boring, and small. Looks like the real charm is in the countryside in Burgundy, which I didn't have time to visit.

Did I mention that Rick Steves was all wrong about buggage check in train stations? Well, his 2002 revision (old version, I know... but they are super slim so it's easy for me to carry them around) said the train stations have baggage check, but in deed they don't. So in case you need to check in the baggage, go ask the near by hotels and see if they want to keep an eye on your luggage for a fee.

I love TGV, the French version of bullet train. It's super fast, and somehow I got scared too... The train route going from Lyon to Beaune is pretty beautiful, no wonder France has so many artists living around the area.

I will stay in Paris for four nights, hopefully it's going to be fun--but I'm definitely feeling tired now.

Lyon the gastronomic city

The school Institut Paul Bocuse is awesome!

(but this keyboard I'm now using is driving me crazy....)

Spent 7 hours in the school, where 3 hours were on the 3-course meal. The school is a chateau, has only 50 new students per year. They will not accept more than three people of the same ethnicity so to mix all cultures together. Unfortunately, they require flurent French, so probably the next time I meet the registraer we will communicate in French.

I also met a girl from George Brown Chef Scool, the one I am attending, who is here as an exchange student. Hopefully I can at least do that too.

The lunch was the best I have ever had in the entire trip--eating in a chateau with execellent food prepared under the supervision of a "Meilleurs Ouvriers de France", and the unhurried pace and relaxed ambience for less then 30 EUR! The courses include Amuse-bouche (very good), an appetizer of beef in stew, a main course of seared fish from the sea, a cheese platter, and a dessert of lavender ice-cream and porched pear...

This is definitely a steal. If you happen to be in the area, the restaurant is called "Saisons" right inside the school, which is located in Ecully, an outskirt of Lyon and about 45 minutes away on bus.

Call ahead to reserve:
Tel: 33 (0)4 72 18 02 23

Surprising Lyon

(This keyboard sucks.... will write short)

Lyon is full of "surpises" (so as the govrenment advertises it):

1. Being the origin of French cuisine, and has the most restaurant per capita, thier traditional tripes (cow's stomach) is really bad--any Hong Kong food carts on the street is better than it. It was like eating rubber bands with a lot of butter and herbs...

2. Lyon is really lively--being the second lagest city in France, all the streets are full of muic of various kinds, and food, of course.

Surrounded by angels

Finally I got to Nice, the Provence region of France. It looks like you have to know some French in order to survive... and as expected, the bus ride to my hostel was a trial and error process. An old French lady on the bus was kind enough to tell me that I missed the stop, but that's the only thing I could guess in her three minutes talk. And then I got off the bus, trying to find my way back to the station, a young guy jumped off from the bus asking if I speak English, and said that he can bring me to the street I want to go... it turns out that this guy was from Ottawa, and he's here to learn French.

The hostel I stay is really good, and in general everything in France seems better than Italy =) the street is much cleaner and more organized, the French's trains are newer, has good air-conditioning, much stylish, and quieter...

Nice is pretty nice, especially the beach! It's the fifth largest city in France, so it's well developed, but it's quieter and has more open space then its Italian Riviera counterpart.

I did go to the recommended "Flo" restaurant, but found out thaht it's not a good price-quality balanced one. There are a lot of other restaurants around the square that's much worth trying. There is this restaurant at a quiet corner of the town that has a very long line! I did find the famous gelato store in the square, but I'm too full for dessert...

I went to Monaco, but since I can't check in luggage at the rail station, I didn't do much except getting a chop on the passport. I guess I will go back tomorrow morning, and then I will hop around different French Côte d'Azur, and then head to Lyon in the evening.

On Friday I will have an important meeting--a school tour of the best culinary institute in France, which is located in Lyon.

(one thing I don't like about French: they use keyboards they have non-American standard key arrangement that I have to double my time typing this....)

Waiting to cross the border

So I'm in Ventimiglia now, the southernmost French-Italian border. Looks like the French rail will resume late this afternoon, and I will be able to catch the 3:00pm train to Nice (hopefully I can stop by Monaco too, but I'm not sure when their next train will be). Good that it only takes 50 minutes arriving Nice from here, so that I still can explore the city before the sun goes down.

Ventimiglia is another city that's part of the Italian Riviera that is 10 minutes away from France, and only 20 minutes away from Monaco. It has even less tourists than Cinque Terre, while they share the same view of Mediterranean.

It's super hot here. There is a reason why Italians need to have afternoon laps--it's impossible to work without air-conditioning under the heat. However, I still don't understand the reasons behind the absent toilet seats--even though I have to pay for using it.

I slept most of the time during this morning's four-hour train transit. Sitting on the platform alone in the dark (I was in the train station 4.30am) seeing trains hauling containers in transit was pretty scary...

OK, so three hours later I will be in France, and hopfully the French has changed to become as friendly as Italians to those who don't know their language...

Best (and worst) of Italy

OK, here's what I found out about Italy:

Best food
The hostel in Florence. The fish cooked simly with tomatoes and olives was unforgettable. I wasn't able to find anything that could match.

Worst food
Cinque Terre -- the (sea) food is overall great, except anchovies! I can't bear it however they're made: salt cured, cooked in lemon juice (well, yeah, not really "cooked" in heat but in lemon juice only), or freshly baked in tomato and herbs sauce. I'm sorry but it's just aweful. Unfortunately, it's one of the most famous products in Cinque Terre.

Best stay
The hostel in Florence. Although it's just a hostel, it has the best Italian garden, filled with the wonderful Tuscan sulight. I went back to the hostel every day just because of the garden.

Worst Stay
Of course, the hostel in Roman. It's horrible. So humid, so hot. The shower doesn't have curtains, the toilet doesn't have seat. Street kids party till 4am every day, the food is aweful (and priced the same as the one in Florence)... how aweful? Their deep fried chicken leg bascially cannot be eaten since the meat is too hard. Anyways, what you can find out about a bad stay, you can find it out in this hostel.

Best city
Actually every city is different, so it's difficult to say. But if I can go back to only one city in Italy, I would choose Civita. Yup, it's surprising. I wouldn't go back alone though. The sunrise was unforgettable.

Worst city
Venice. Yup, sorry, I know Venice could be beautiful, but it's just not for me. May be somehow I would change this feeling in the future. But to me, Venice is only for tourist...

Need to get up at 4am tomorrow to catch a 6.50 train to the border of Italy and France. Hopefully I'll be in Nice tomorrow...

In troubles...

So I thought I could conclude my Italian journey nicely in Cinque Terre, and start going to France tomorrow. Unfortunately, the France's railway decided to go on strike these two days, and there is no way for me to take a train to Monte Carlo and Nice as planned. I am going to take the train early tomorrow morning to the border of Italy and France, and try to find out from there options that take me to the southern part of France, if there is any. I think bus would be one of the options, but it will not be as seamless as by train. My other option is to go to Milan tomorrow, stay for a night (and may be even going to Lake Como), and then fly to Lyon, and continue my journey up to Paris. Hopefully all things work out tomorrow. I bought some good wines as souvenirs but I'll have to unload some of them tonight =)

Late last evening I went for another 3km hike, and it was quite scary hiking alone this late. I had to make noise with my tripod and the water bottle to scare "things" away...

Road less traveled

Well, actually, not quite. Cinque Terre has now become a pretty well-known vacation destination. However, thanks to the enormous efforts of the concerned parties, it has also become one of the most environmnetally protected region. For one thing, Cinque Terre is now in the list of UNESCO World Heritage. Even though by day time it is quite a busy touristy spot (or I should say spots, since Cinque Terre refers to a region made up by five adjacent cities, which are now well connected by train of 5 minutes away).

The best thing to do in the cities is to go hiking. I hiked from Vernnaza, the land I stayed, to Monterroso this morning. It was a 3km hike, around 2 hours, and it was quite dangerous, since some parts of the trail are very narrow by the cliff--it's so narrow that only a thin little guy like me has no troubles passing by. The trail was pretty steep too, but it's rewarding. The view just outside of Vernnza is magnificiant.

This trail has been until last century the only connection between the two cities, and it leads to the perception of Mediterranean landscape. The planted terraces testify that man has lived a hard life with persistence, and has created an admirable landscape.

It was a hard hike, but the fragrance of plants from the essential oils brought out by heat made the hike enjoyable.

And the breeze from Mediterranean Sea makes time irrelevant--it's such an oasis between sea and sky!

One thing though, I still can't accept anchovy, however it is famous in this area (and they served it fresh with lemon juice, unlike the saly cured American style). And talking about lemon, I finally got to see those that are as big as my palm!

Wow!

To be honest, the road to Cinque Terre was long and sweaty, although I took a little detour to Pisa and Lucca.

As usual, I couldn't sleep at the hostel last night. They have a bar nearby, no wonder they have steet party till 4am. Fortunately, I had nothing to do in Rome yesterday so I went to bed at around 9am. Woke up at 6am, so looking forward to escape from this hostel, I went to the train station knowing that I have to wait 2 hours--believe me, it's much better than staying in the bed at that hostel.

Anyways, went to Pissa and Lucca afterwards. It's the most seamless time connecting trains today since the schedule of the trains to Pissa and Lucca were perfectly matched.

I have been saying a lot of bad things about Italians, but I started to admire them now: despite the fact that they always smoke around me, jumping in the line, throwing rocks to my windows--they are truely helpful, warm, inviting, and fun. Today when I was in the three-hour train from Rome to Pisa, I talked to three different Italian families. They're just like one big family! Although I don't quite get what they say in Italian, there was a guy translated for me... all without me asking! And you know my luggages are huge and heavy, and these guys helped me to rearranged the cramped luggage rack and helped me to push the luggage up (and pull it down too when I left the train). They're truely awesome people. And you know what, whenever I'm lost, I always get a lot of help from the Italian strangers--even though they don't quite understand English, and I have no clue about Italian either--but somehow we communicated and I got the right directions. Isn't this awesome? Sadly, when in I asked directions to some English-speaking family today, you know what they answered? "I don't know, go ask yourself..." yeah, I know, you are stranger to this place too... but isn't that a bit not helpful?

Anyways, the Leaning Tower is magical. I didn't stay long though, since I wasn't planning to climb the tower. After Pisa I left for Lucca. I was interested about this little town since I looked at one picture and found it awesome--it was a town that has three layer's of houses building arond outside of each other. Too bad, I couldn't find the point where the picture was taken, even though I climbed up the village tower.

Cinque Terre is an awesome place!!! I will write more about this place tomorrow, but it's for sure a romantic place. Jacky said it right, it's a place for vacation within an vacation.