Greece day 3: New Acropolis Museum and Rick Steve’s walking tour [YQrtw Day 40 May 17]

I was planning to laze around and visit the New Acropolis Museum later in the afternoon. But when I checked my notes, I found out that the museum closes at 15:00.

I guess that means lazing around will have to come later. [I just looked at my notes again and realized that I confused National Archaeological Museum with Acropolis Museum’s time.]

I first knew of the New Acropolis Museum when D e-mailed me on June 15, 2009, an article about the museum’s opening. I was in my 9th month at work and my reply to the e-mail was:

wow.
I’ve actually forgotten that I want to go to Greece one day.

Then D reminded me that we shouldn’t become work drones. So I put the Acropolis Museum into my mental list of Places To-Go and thought about Greece again.

The Acropolis Museum

When I got to the museum, I thought to myself: I AM FINALLY HERE! (Oh wait, I think I did that at the Parthenon yesterday.)

The museum’s entrance had a surprise waiting. Parts of the floor was clear (with white polka dots), allowing visitors to see the excavation site underneath. There was also an excavated site that was open air and silly people tossed coins into it.

Before the Acropolis Museum's entrance — Before the Acropolis Museum’s entrance

The entrance to the museum was only 6 euro. It was so much cheaper than the other places I’ve been in Italy. I love Greece very much just for this.

Photo taking wasn’t allowed in the museum. I didn’t do any sketches like I did with David but I did sneak photos of the non-exhibits.

There were several of these signs saying “A Day at the Acropolis Museum with the Goddess Athena”. It was the cutest thing I’ve seen in a museum.

The description was in kid-language and was more fun to read than the adult-language sign.

The nightshift staff at my hotel, Hellen, warned me about the museum’s see-through floors so I wore pants to the place.

At one section, you can see the museum people cleaning up some of the statues. On the same level, the laser cleaning is covered up with a curtain.

View of Parthenon from the Acropolis Museum

On the third floor of the Acropolis Museum is a segment dedicated to the Parthenon. That floor is specially designed to face the same direction as the Parthenon is facing. It also has steel columns in between the carvings to show how the items look like in the temple.

I felt that the museum was a little small since it didn’t take me much time to finish all the items on display.

Still, it was a good museum because of all the Parthenon carvings and Athena statues.

Lunch at Smile Cafe Restaurant

I didn't eat the dog. Honestly. — I didn’t eat the dog. Honestly.

I had lunch at a tourist restaurant. Why is it touristy? Because it prints out maps of the Acropolis area and invites tourists to eat there.

The food was good for a tourist restaurant. I ordered from the Crisis Menu, a set lunch for only 7.50 euro.

I finally had tasty bread (which I never had in Italy). The cheese in the Greek salad was nice. I ate the tomatos and some cucumbers of the salad, thankful that it wasn’t the regular raw vegetable.

The gyros with pork was lovely, although I thought that I should stop eating Middle Eastern cuisine and be more adventurous.

It began raining while I was eating. Thank goodness I have my umbrella with me. I dropped by a coffee place for a 1 euro cafe latte before setting off to find the travel agency that sells bus tickets to Istanbul.

Silver Star Travel was easy to find, thanks to Google Maps. The 14-hour bus ride from Athens to Istanbul cost 60 euro (or 56 euro after -ahem- student discount). The price is half of flying to Istanbul and the time spent is half of taking connecting ferries.

Since my missions for the day was accomplished, I had to find something to do.

As usual, I hopped on a random bus that took me to a random place. And I took a not-so-random bus back to the city center.

Rick Steve’s audio tour

Rick Steve has an audio tour for Athens city so I decided to spend the afternoon walking around with my headphones in my ear.

His audio tours are really awesome. I went into different nooks and crannies of Athens. Climbed steep hills. Passed pretty Mediterranean houses. And learned more about the city than I would wandering aimlessly.

When the tour ended, so did my day. I bought 1kg each of cherries and strawberries (what was I thinking!) before heading back to the hotel to rest and write.

Until tomorrow!

Greece day 2: Athen’s National Archaeological Museum + Acropolis [YQrtw Day 39 May 16]

Corridor of Athena statues at National Archaeology Museum

Location: Athens, Greece

King Agamemnon's mask — King Agamemnon’s mask (not really his though)

Since I am staying 7 nights in Athens, I have 6-full days for sightseeing in the city. I had planned to slow down my pace and visit only one museum/ site a day.

Today’s plan was to see the National Archaeological Museum which is near by hotel and roam around the city in the afternoon.

When I went out a little before 8:30am, the sky was grey and cloudy and the temperature was cool. It felt like my kind of day.

Using directions by Google Maps, I took bus B12.

The signs for buses here in Athens is all Greek so I don’t think the government recommends tourists to take the bus.

Before the museum, there was a little cafe and the price of its bread was very reasonable. I had a pastry with cheese filling and a cappuccino.

While eating, a little tanned girl with messy hair came into the cafe to ask for money. It was rather awkward for me and I focused on my bread.

I didn’t want to encourage begging and thought that it was better than her going out and pickpocket. Actually, begging is not any better than stealing.

National Archaeological Museum’s goodies

The museum was large but not overly gigantic like the Vatican Museum.

My Rick Steve’s audio guide for the museum worked perfectly, telling me highlights of the museum and the history behind them.

In fact, I had been enjoying Rick Steve’s audio tours for all the places I’ve been. I highly recommend you to download them if you are heading to Europe. He has mobile apps as well as podcasts and they area all free.

While the museum had lots of great Greecian works (like the gold mask above), my favorite section was the little corridor with statues of Athena.

At the end of the corridor was a small statues of Athena, her helmet decorated with winged beings, her Peter Pan collar decorated with snakes (!) and her shield also decorated with a snake. This was a miniature copy of the gigantic Athena statues that stood in the Parthenon in the ancient time (a replica in Nashville shows the size of Athena).

After the museum, I was thinking of where next to go. The sky was still grey and cloudy so I thought it would be perfect to go to the Acropolis and enjoy a not sweaty climb.

Off I went to the metro, buying a frappe to drink along the way. This time, the frappe had a less sour endnote. I’m getting to like this more and more.

Acropolis

It was about 12 noon when I reached. Based on my experience at the Vatican Museum, this was the best time to visit any famous sites as the tour groups have headed for lunch.

I got my tickets at the Theater of Dionysus so there wasn’t a queue. Even with the ticket, I had to exchange for an electronic ticket at the main entrance so it kind of annoyed me.

Rick Steve’s Acropolis audio tour kept me company the whole way. This is way cheaper than hiring a tour guide and less taxing!

The path to the Parthenon wasn’t a smooth walkway and I was thankful that my sandals didn’t sprain my feet.

Oh, I forgot to mention, the sun decided to come ot and play when I bought the ticket. The sky was cloudy but the ray of the sun pierced through and made it a little too warm.

It got so hot that I had to hide in the shade, thinking if I should wait for sunset and leave at 8pm (it was 2pm then). I didn’t leave that late but I did hang around in the shade, writing postcards.

Postage in Greece is cheaper than in Italy. I had to pay 2 euro to mail a postcard from the Vatican City but here in Greece, it was only 78 cents each.

Oh, I also started eating a chocolate pastry I bought. I was told by someone working at the Acropolis that only water is allowed. Oops.

After my long wait, I finally finished my audio tour and descended from the holy hill.

My phone’s battery was dangerously low then so I decided to head back to the hotel. Before that, I stopped at Carrefour (!!!) for some dairy product to prevent my stomach from having severe gastric.

Carrefour in Athens near Larissis Station

I did plan to head out later but my lazy bones decided to stay in with my computer. Let’s hope tomorrow’s more productive!

Greece day 1: No Museum Day in Athens [YQrtw Day 38 May 15]

Location: Athens, Greece

Hello I’m back on my laptop! I was afraid that my netbook would die and leave me after it got wet from a leaky water bottle. I switched it on last night and it shut off when I tried moving it.

I gave it a night to dry and was glad this morning to find that it was OK!

Back to today’s event. After many days of museum–seeing in Italy, I was getting quite tired of seeing lovely old things.

Plus, I really didn’t want to do any planning for the day so I rested by setting today as No Museum Day.

Anyway, I will be in Athens for 7 nights (much longer than any cities I’ve been) so I’m sure I’ll get to see lots of the city in the following week.

[My airconditioner is making noises like a lawnmover as I write. Last night, I had to switch it off and rely on the cool night air of end of Spring, or else I would get no sleep.]

Back to the day’s event. So what does No Museum Day mean? It means I get to leave my room late at past 10am–not possible when you need to be in line for a gallery before it’s opening–and I do not need to plan anything.

Of course I still need to tick a few things off my To-Do List, the most important being #1 Get a local SIM; and somewhere down the list is Get a cheap hat that fits my head.

After getting a weekly transport pass in the shape of a small ticket, I started my SIM hunting at Syntagma Square. The square didn’t seem very busy compared to the cities I have been to on this trip. Maybe there weren’t too many tourists around crowding the place.

I walked down the sloppy pedestrian street near Syntagma Square. When I looked at the cafes, it didn’t seem like Greece was in a downturn. I saw a lot of locals sitting at cafes, chatting over coffees. Today is a Wednesday, why are you all outside?

While walking, I passed a bakery, overflowing with bread and pastries. I grabbed a braided bread–which might have been a tsoureki–that was only 70 cents. The bread was big and had lumps of sugar on it, giving me the energy to continue my search for my SIM card.

While walking, I saw some parts of the Acropolis from afar. There was a gated area which had an unguarded door, leading me to think that it is possible to sneak in without paying charges.

Sipping Greek coffees

As I walked down the street, I checked out the menu of one of the cafe. The waiter came out to greet me, and left me with a stunning employee who was the “coffee master”.

The coffee master looked a little like Jason Stackhouse from True Blood. Of course, how can I say no to getting the recommended cappucino freddo which was overpriced by 2 euro? Damn these sneaky businesspeople and people with fairy blood.

The coffee tasted different from the smooth drinks I had in Italy. Its taste reminded me of Turkish coffee but, thankfully, without the coffee grounds.

I took my time with the coffee and read a few chapters on my Kindle. Not running around after museums is really fun.

After the coffee break, I ended up at a tram station. I took the tram to nowhere, deciding to stop when I see a Wind shop to get my SIM.

The tram snaked its way into the residential area. It wasn’t long when I spotted a large Wind shop.

Getting a local SIM in Greece was much easier than Italy. I didn’t have to wait a whole day for activation and there was a promo where I only pay 5 euro for 500MB. That works out awesome for me.

I never figured out which part of Athens I was at but it was a wealthy-looking neighborhood. More people hung out at cafes and the shops were selling shoes that cost more than 50 euro.

It was in this unknown neighborhood that I replenished my sunblock and had a taste of my first Greek frappé (for only 1 euro).

I saw the lady put two spoonfuls each of sugar and coffee powder. She poured in water, beat the cup’s content with a machine and added milk.

The mixture was fun at the beginning. I tasted some of the unmelted sugar and was jolted by the thick caffeine.

Later when the drink was almost gone, the foam and the leftover remained, the coffee turned sour and bitter. I had to toss the thing away.

After more walking aimlessly, I head back to my hotel, stoppined at Carrefour for a roasted chicken to feast in my room.

From 4pm onwards, I retired and did a bit of reading and writing.

Tomorrow, museum seeing will continue. Until then!

Greece day 1: Delayed plane to Athens [YQrtw Day 37 May 14]

[I am writing this on my iPhone. This morning my water bottle spilled in my bag and the computer was affected too. I’m leaving it to dry until tomorrow morning, may the gods of Greece bless the machine.]

Location: Rome, Italy
Location: Athens, Greece

This morning, the AirBnb hostess offered to drop me off at the metro since she was driving her mother to work as well.

That meant I had 15 minutes less to pack my things which were (typical of me) strewn everywhere.

Fortunately, I did manage to pack everything, even taking into account what I should leave in my checkin bag (US$20).

(Later the hostess e-mailed to say that I forgot a dress in my cabinet. That’s not too big a deal.)

I had breakfast at the train station at one of the coffee station. As usual, it was a standing café bar and everything was consumed quickly.

While I walked to the express train platform, I realozed that the bottom of my hand carry felt wet. To my horror, the cap of my bottle was open.

Taking most of the things out, I realized that the effect wasn’t too bad. The cardigan which I stuffed in to mop up the water was damp but not dripping wet.

As for my netbook, it’s battery side had some water but everything else looked OK. To be safe, I decided to wait a long while before switching it on.

On the train, I spent some time trying to figure out how to open the table so I could charge my iPhone.

I pushed, pulled, banged and knocked. On the end, I realized that I needed to push the panel up, not inwards.

The express train to the airport was fast. In 30 minutes time, we reached the airport.

At the easyJet terminal, I was told that my flight had been rescheduled from 12:40 to 15:00. Oh well, we have to embrace things out of our control.

The queue for easyJet’s checkin was horrible. It took me an hour or so to get my baggage in.

I witnessed two old ladies (one with a Canadian passport, the other Italian) jumped queue like a boss. Just unabashedly push pass others (especially if they are German or Asian).

The wait for the plane was slow. I ate expensive airport food, drank a cappucino, tried to turn on my computer to pass time.

Finally, it was time to board. The shuttle that was taking us to the plane didn’t leave even though it was fill until the other bus came to pick the rest of us up.

EasyJet had a nice plane. Their inflight magazine was hip with articles about music festivals.

Even their inflight meals were co. They serve Starbucks instant coffee and sparkling wine–all at higher price than on land.

I snoozed on the plane with my mouth open. All these days of sightseeing was taking a toll on me, I’ll take things slower in Athens.

We landed in Athens airport a little after an hour and a half.

The signs to the Metro station were clear but when I got there, I found a sign about train stations with so much greek alphabets that my jaw dropped.

I did figure out my train and got to my hotel safely.

At the hotel, a bubbly receptionist greeted me. It was Helen who wad from the Philippines.

When I asked where to go for dinner, she asked me to join her pizza dinner with another hotel guest.

The other guest, Scott, was from Australia and had a big beard with long hair. He was into heavy metal and just came from a heavy metal cruise where people drank a lot of beer.

He also planned to travel for four months, focusing on Europe. I didn’t share my four-month career break because it felt odd blurting it to a stranger.

Now I am in my room. My airconditioner makes noises that sound like the motor of a noisy fishing boat. I’ll take it as a lullaby.

Italy day 10: Seeing the Capuchin crypt [YQrtw Day 36 May 13]

Location: Rome, Italy

I had quite enough of museums and art galleries after my three full museum days in Florence so I decided to focus only on one museum in Rome–the Vatican Museum.

I read somewhere online that if you want to skip the queue at the Vatican Museum, it’s best to go after lunch time when the tour groups are out to eat.

I decided to follow that advice so my morning was pretty free.

While I was on the underground heading to nowhere in Rome, I spotted a rather interesting attraction on my mobile travel guide app.

The Capuchin Crypt has skeletons and skulls used as decoration and the whole thing fascinated me.

Luckily, my train was just nearby the train station so got off I made the stop at Bernini.

Looking at the facade of the church, you can’t tell that inside it hides a hauntingly beautiful corridor of bones.

There was an entrance fee of 7 euro to the museum and the crypt.

The museum is small but had interesting information on the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin. Actually, I was most excited to learn that the Capuchin friars live like a hermit (and also hel people along the way) since The Hermit is one of the cards in tarot.

The museum section is small and at the end is the crypt with its decorative skeletons and skulls.

Unlike the Paris catacombs, the crypt was small. It’s more like a 20-meter long corridor where one side is a wall and the other side with small rooms that do not have a wall.

Even though the photos of the crypt make it seem like a huge place, the rooms are rather small, each about 2 meters wide and 3 meters long.

in the small “rooms”, the bones are decorated in themes. The themes are:

Crypt of the Three Skeletons
Crypt of the Leg Bones and Thigh Bones
Crypt of the Pelves
Crypt of the Skulls
Mass Chapel (no bones here)
Crypt of the Resurrection.

Almost every empty space on the ceiling was decorated with bones. One had a skull framed by pelvis bones on its two sides, making it look like a rather scary butterfly.

Walking pass bones and skeletons

At first, it was a little scary walking into the corridor with skulls grinning at me. Then I asked myself, “What is it that is scary?”

I concluded that these were just brown bones of humans so there is nothing to be afraid of. It was then that I started to admire the arrangements as art.

Aptly, in the first room, there was a sign in multiple languages. I copied the English version here:

WHAT YOU ARE NOW WE USED TO BE; WHAT WE ARE NOW YOU WILL BE

Yes, one day we will become bones, or ashes if you are cremated. Until then, we’ll need to live life to as best as we can.

Halfway during the walk, I realized that I was face to face with another Tarot card: Death. Later in the day I would meet “Judgement” in the form of Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel.

Italy day 9: The day I saw the pope [YQrtw Day 35 May 12]

I have to admit something. I did not do any “homework” for my days in Rome and I rely on my mobile apps to do all my planning.

That was why I ended up in the Vatican City on a Sunday. Not a good move.

I thought that since the Vatican Museum is closed on Sundays, St Peter’s Basiilca would be free of crowds.

What I didn’t realize was that the queue into St Peter’s was short because about every other person was already inside listening to the pope’s mass.

Uh oh.

[I found out just now that today was a special day in which the pope announced new saints. No wonder there was so many people.]

The square was packed with people but there was still some standing room. I stood with the crowd, peering far ahead to try and make out which rice-sized figure was the pope.

I gave up looking for the pope and settle with the big screen broadcast instead.

During the ceremony, the pope seemed to shake a lot of clergypeople’s hands. He also read from a big book and wore a large hat.

The fancy hat was ta ken off and exchanged for a smart white cap when the pope came down from his pedestal and into the pope-mobile.

The pope waved a lot at the crowd, kissed a lot of babies and later kissed a lot of people with disabilities. I teared up a little at the last part.

The pope-mobile never came to my part of the square. The people around me chanted “Fran-cesco, Fran-cesco”, hoping Papa would hear and ask his driver to steer the pope-mobile to us.

When the pope-mobile was near, almost everyone (including me) cheered.

It was like cheering for a rock star but one with a heaven lot more fans.

Italy day 8: From Florence to Rome [YQrtw Day 34 May 11]

Location: Florence, Italy
Location: Rome, Italy

After five nights, I have finally left Florence. I still feel like I do not know the city very well.

Even on the last morning, I got lost among the cobbled street and couldn’t decipher my map. I didn’t manage to visit the central market to have a bowl of Florentine soup.

I did get a small baguette with smoked ham. The friendly Taiwanese couple shared their spaghetti carbonara as well as a tub of panna cotta with me. Yums.

I arrived that the train station 20 minutes before my scheduled departure.

To my horror, my platform number wasn’t available. I panicked a little and imagined that my train was cancelled and I would be stuck in Florence with no backup plan.

Of course, my reasonable side told me to shut up and wait for the train. The platform did show up in the end, 10 minutes before the departure.

My second-class premium seat had leathery seats and a free drink for the passenger. The overhead area for luggage was slightly bigger than the standard space so that was a nice touch.

Once in Rome, I followed the directions written by my AirBnb host and took the underground. I then used Google Maps to find my way to the house. Unfortunately, Maps brought me to the wrong side of the road and I treked past about 50 houses before I reached my destination.

3 nights in the attic

My accommodation in Rome–slightly outside of Rome is probably a more accurate description–is with an AirBnB host family. I am staying in the attic. I don’t have any good photos of the room yet but I’ll put them up when I have them tomorrow.

It’s a really cute room with two beds, two sofas, a small table, fridge (!), kettle with tea bags and rather weak lighting (or “romantic lighting”).

I remembered that I once wished to live in an attic and now I really am so that’s one thing off my to-do list.

IKEA Italy’s little surprise

Since IKEA was nearby, I stopped there for a look before heading back to Rome for sightseeing.

To my delight, the IKEA here has 2 cafes! It’s so Italian to have cafe even though there is the regular section for cafeteria-like food.

I had a cappuccino and a biscuit for 1.70 euro. The coffee tasted fine (this is not the cafe for regular IKEA coffee) and the biscuit was the same as any Marks & Spenser biscuit.

Next stop was Rome proper. I only managed to see the Colosseum because the name of the station is the same as the site. It wasn’t as gigantic as I was led to believe but I sat down a while to stare at it and found that it was quite large.

Dinner was pizza from a pizzeria near where I’m staying. The pizza was charged based on weight. The whole thing was so yummy I should have bought more.

Italy day 7: Defeated by a Florentine steak [YQrtw Day 33 May 10]

Location: Florence, Italy

I was a little depressed at dinner today. I felt like weeping but I told myself that I am in Florence and I damn well should not cry.

I suppose it was a mix of the cold rainy weather and my hormones. But mostly it was the gigantic piece of beef steak that caused me to feel sad.

I could not finish my 700gm beef steak. Unlike David who defeated Goliath, I was crushed by a (roughly 350gm) piece of uneaten meat.

Conquering Florence-style steak: Bistecca alla fiorentina

The Bistecca alla fiorentina (beefsteak Florentine style) is a famous dish in Florence. The meat is grilled on wood and served rather rare.

I knew I had to try the dish before I leave Florence tomorrow. I headed to one of the restaurants where I previously had lunch. It was still too early for dinner so I was one of the few customers.

The restaurant waiter told me that the smallest serving for bistecca alla fiorentina was 700gm. I decided to go ahead even though they have a set meal with 550gm steak and a few sides.

The meat that arrived was gigantic. The only company to the meat was one piece of purple lettuce and a wedge of lemon.

I knew I couldn’t finish the whole serving but I took the advice of how to eat an elephant (one bite at a time). I squeezed some lemon juice on the whole slab of meat and started with my first bite.

The skin had a nice burnt salty crispy taste while the meat was tender. Further away from the sides, the meat became rarer and rarer, pinker and pinker.

The dish was quite good since the meat was tender. However, by the time I finished half of it, my body told me to stop or everything else might come back up.

So I stared at the steak for a while. I wasn’t sure if asking for a doggie bag was polite in Italy. I didn’t want the dish to go to waste neither and started plotting ways I could take the piece back.

As I plotted, I felt depressed. The meat that was about a two-hundredth of my weight taunted me, “You call yourself a glutton?”

In the end the waiter was very understanding and helped me get a takeaway box.

I walked in the rain back to the dorm with the steak. In the end, the others in the dorm helped me conquer the slab of meat. That’s where you’re going Mr Meat!

Today’s summary: Natural Museum, Pitti Palace’s various museum, lunch + gelato, Basilica of the Holy Cross, Palazzo Vecchio.

Glutton on a cruise

After the teaser post last week, I’m ready to show you some of the things I ate on my 15-night cruise.

It’s very dangerous to put a Glutton on a cruise, especially a 15-night cruise. I think all the imagined fat that I’ve burnt off getting lost cycling in Sri Lanka were replaced by the food I had been eating everyday on the cruise.

First off, I want to share that I’m quite disappointed that food on board is not free-flowing for 24 hours.You still have room service throughout the night (free food but please tip the delivery person) but that doesn’t really count, does it? Of course, no midnight buffet is actually a good thing as it avoids food wastage and overeating.

By the way, food on board is not fantastic. It’s a bit like plane food (but you know that I love plane food)

On board the Legend of the Seas, there are three main eating places I go to: Windjammer Cafe, Romeo and Juliet Restaurant and Park Cafe.

Windjammer Cafe has buffets for three meals while Romeo and Juliet has sit-down meals for the same three meals. Park Cafe serves snacks and opens when Windjammer is closed but only until around 1:00am.

Windjammer Cafe food

I prefer Windjammer over the dining room of Romeo and Juliet because you get to pick and choose only what you want to try.

At breakfast, you can order omelettes with fillings of your choice. My favorite types are ham, bacon, mushroom and cheese.

For lunch and dinner, I usually eat like a carnivore with loads of meat on my plate.

Generally speaking, the ship doesn’t do Asian food well. All the Chinese-inspired soups were filled with MSG.

Romeo and Juliet restaurant

For the dining room, there’s fixed seating at dinner and free seating at lunch and breakfast. For free seating, you’re usually guided to a shared table and everyone makes small talk.

I met a lot of new people at the free seating which is really good since I don’t go out and mingle about too much.

The dining room offered a menu with food that appeared more than once each week. The main dishes were alright but the desserts were usually rather good for cruise food.

During dinner, everyone has fixed waiters for the table. My two waiters were Jenny and Valent who keep the conversation going when I sit alone. There were two Indian couples who now live in the US at my dinner table too.

On the last night, the staff stage a singing show to bid us farewell. It made me a little sad to leave the ship.

Self-squeezed orange juice

I found out about self-squeezed orange juice from a blogger who was on a transalantic cruise. She made her own orange juice because freshly squeezed orange juice was too expensive on the ship.

On Legend of the Seas, freshly squeezed orange juice is US$4. There is also juice made from concentrate–which I love–but it’s different from drinking orange juice just freshly squeezed.

I make mine by cutting the orange with cutlery snagged from the buffet table. The inside can be crushed easily using a spoon. It’s a rather messy business by the end is worth all the effort.

Have you been on a cruise? How was the food?

Italy day 6: Florence Food Tour and David’s bum [YQrtw Day 32 May 9]

Location: Florence, Italy

Today was the day for my Florence Food Tour, something I’ve been waiting excitedly for. Taking Google Map’s direction advice, I took the C3 bus, hoping to drop near the office.

The bus that came was very crowded. I stuffed myself in the front but more people came on. I was stuck between the legs of one lady and the arm of an older lady, (Lady! Why do you need to hold on to the handle when you are already sitting? Why?!)

As the bus turned, I balanced myself on my feet, afraid that I might crush the brittle arm of the old lady. I decided to get off at the next stop because the old lady seemed to be quite pissed with my bum being on her arm.

The next bus that came was rather empty but I still missed my stop. I hopped off at the next stop and started walking to the office with Google Map’s help.

The problem with Google Map was that it listed the office at the other end of the street. It took me a while before I actually reached the correct spot.

Our guide was Angela, a Sicilian. The other tour members were a young Iranian couple from the US and an older couple from Holland.

I’ll give you a quick summary of what we have, the full post will come next Friday. [Disclosure: Italy Segway Tour which operates the food tour gave me a complimentary tour in exchange for a blog post.]

Our stop included coffee, wine, truffles, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, bread, pasta and gelato. Everyone on the tour was stuffed to the brim before our last gelato stop. Of course we still managed to wolf down our gelato since desserts are processed in our other stomach.

Halfway through the tour, my digital camera suddenly grew a wound-like slash in its lens. Every photo came out with a blotch. I thought this was the end of my camera but luckily it went back to normal later in the day.

I did a whirldwind tour of the Medici chapel and the Palazzo Medici Riccardi with my Firenze Card. The chapel’s fresco were really impressive but we couldn’t take photos so it wasn’t that exciting.

Seeing Michelangelo’s David in the marble

Next stop was Michelangelo’s David. When I got to the Accademia Gallery, there were two lines for those with reserved tickets. (Firenze Card holders count as reserved ticket folks.) Instead of queuing at the second line, I visited the Archaeological Museum to pass time.

The museum had a rather impressive collection of mummies. The mummies didn’t look very appetizing and made me worry about the day when they would arise from the dead.

After about an hour of the museum, I headed back to see David. The line was much shorter and I got in quite soon.

The marble statue of David is rather impressive. It is really tall (14 feet plus the pedestal) and carved very finely.

Since we could not take photos of David (many people still do), I drew a few sketches for you. Of course I wasn’t born a drawing genius, nor was I trained in drawing, so just be happy about what you see here and don’t complain too much please.

In case you are wondering, the second photo is David’s bum, not a picture of the Elephant Man.

I listened to Rick Steve’s audio tour for the Accademia and David. It’s good enough if you (like me), do not want to spend money on the official audio guides.

After looking at the rest of David’s companions in the Accademia, I headed back to the square to my favorite cafe for a cappucino and tiramisu.

It was about 6:00pm when I was done with my cake. I looked at my map and realized that I need to check off a lot more places today with my Firenze Card so I have more time tomorrow.

I had the crazy idea to climb the bell tower of the Santa Maria delle Fiore church. It was 414 steps, divided into five or so spiralling staircases. I was very out of breath by the time I reached the top.

The view was very nice from the top but I didn’t think it was worth 414 steps. If the Firenze Card didn’t cover this site and I’ve paid cold hard cash, I think I would have found all the stair climbing a refreshing exercise.

The sky was still light by the time I walked back at about 7:30pm. I dropped in the restaurant next to my hostel and ate a humungous plate of seafood pasta.

That was all for the day. If you haven’t added me on Twitter, please add @yqtravelling. I usually spam that account since it’s less intrusive compared to spamming Facebook or the blog.

Ciao.