Western Europe (9/17/08-10/2/08)

I spent two weeks with my mom and brother, blazing through 9 days in Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice, Milan and Lake Como-Bellagio)... and ending with 4 days in Paris. I then went on my way to Brugge for a couple of nights, staying with Wim, Samme and their pup Buddie.

Lowpoints:
-It was a rough start with our first 3 nights in Rome. Although the private apartment I booked was wonderfully clean, spacious, cheap and centrally located (with a view of the Colosseum right up the street)... it also happened to be right above a nightclub. Each night got progressively worse, from minor street noise the first night, to loud street noise and festive music the second, and serious thumping house beats on the third night (Saturday). Whenever the music dimmed to a lull, I would hope that the worst was over. But the sound continually crescendo-ed back up with techno sirens blaring in full force. I think the madness eventually stopped around 5am. Never book accommodation without reading adequate customer reviews.

-When my brother and I ordered some gelato in Florence, I thought the cashier was joking when she told me it was 7 euros per cone (over $10!). It wasn't so funny when she pointed to the discretely place price point tags. And the gelato wasn't nearly as good as the ones we had before (for 2-3 euroes). We stayed vigilant of tourist traps for the rest of the trip, and with my mother's hawkish eye for cost-value, we were pretty successful.

-After a late dinner in Venice, we were a 30-40 minute walk away from our apartment. After wandering about an hour, we thought we were close by... following our way along the grand canal path. I decided to ask a restaurant waiter, who was clearing up a final table outside, if we were close to our destination and he laughed. We had reached the canal path on a wrong section, and were heading away from, not toward, our hotel. Luckily, we were close to the water bus, and enjoyed a beautiful evening ride though the grand canal, tip to tip. We were exhausted, but had a good laugh - even with our short one day stay in Venice, I felt that I had sufficiently walked the city. Back at the apartment, my brother and I cleansed the room of about a dozen mosquitoes before heading to bed.

Highlights:
-We were blessed with perfect fall weather with only 1 day of rain - which we spent indoors at the Vatican Museum and St. Peters. The rain came back while in Paris, shortly after my mom brother headed off to the Paris airport.

-The expected: Stone, marble, tile, glass, paint. Pasta, pizza, meats and wine. Climbing towers, duomos, city views. Sistine Chapel, Statue of David, Mona Lisa, check.

-The moments of tranquility... taking it slow on Lake Como and in Bellagio. Sitting in Parisian parks. Cemetery Pere-Lachaise - where my brother and I particularly enjoyed... visiting the tombs of Jim Morrison, Chopin, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde... but the place made my mom feel a bit uneasy - the Taiwanese culture can be a bit superstitious, and it is considered bad luck to photograph graves. She distracted herself by collecting large chesnuts and colorful fall foliage from the grounds.

-Chilling out in Bruge with wonderful hosts Wim and Samme - taking Buddie (their cute cocker spaniel) out for city walks, Wim's delicious Flemish dinner, and wonderful conversation... everything from music and art, relationships, philosophy to enjoying laughs about Sarah Palin. On the second night, we drove to Ghent with their friend Patsy to the opening night of the season at the massive art-music performance house complex Vooruit.