Milan

Last night, Amanda and I met at JFK to fly off to Milan. After a very diluted Bloody Mary, in our matching black leggings and Bose headphones, we were on the plane! Unfortunately, the plane was full and vomiting kids in the row behind us. Also, Amanda's audio didn't work, so she couldn't watch the one movie she was excited to see - hopefully they have Hunger Games on the way back! While my audio was very scratchy - the flight was definitely not for the win. After a few apricot juices and several movies, we arrived in Italy! To celebrate, Air Italia gave us these:



Upon arrival, we took the Malpensa Express train to Milano Centrale station which took about 50 minutes. Our hotel, M Gallery by Accor is a few blocks away. After dropping our bags and checking out our room, we headed out as we wanted to enjoy the day as much as possible.

We took the M3 - Yellow train with our unlimited daily ticket from the Centrale station to Duomo, to see the Cathedral, pictured below with the refinished facade:



The Cathedral inside was lovely with a lavish crypt and baptistry that was unearthed through an excavation. Here are a few photos:







After, we opted for the stairs option in lieu of the elevator to get to the top of the Cathedral and see the terraces. This was particularly painful for me as I had gone to an intense gym class yesterday and was still very sore! Amanda hash tagged in her Instagram, we had "jet lagged delusions of our fitness" - but we made it to the top to see these awesome views of the city and get a closer look of the spires:







There was also a sculpture exhibit on top of the roof:



When we returned back to the ground, I was dying for some ice cream, so a friendly Chinese man sold me a hazelnut gelato and Amanda had a caprese sandwich. We then walked through the famous shopping arcade called the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II to the Piazza La Scala where the famous opera house is. Here's a photo of the shopping arcade's glass ceiling:



The 2nd place I wanted to see was Saint Ambrogio church, who is the patron saint of Milan. We took the metro to get there as it started to drizzle - here's a collage of this 4th century church:



By the time we left, the sun was out and we decided to walk down to the canal district called Navigli where on the last Sunday of the month they have an outdoor antique fair. Today it seemed like one massive block party and there appeared to be some canal races as shown here:



We stopped in Taglio for some lattes and this lovely cheese and meat platter to give us some fuel to power through our jet lag!:



We wandered the block party and the crowds of people, then we managed to meander upward to a park. We were exhausted, but knew we probably had to eat before returning to our hotel. So after some research and a little trial and error, we made it to Piazza San Lorenzo, the location of a basilica of the same name and a Roman colonnade, both pictured below:



In the piazza, everybody was enjoying their appertivo, or happy hour, but we were interested in food. However, most restaurants don't get dinner going until much later, so we walked toward the metro and before getting off at our stop, decided to stop in the "Golden Quad" of high-end fashion in Montenapoleone. We quickly saw the many high-end shops that were closed and caught a tram (our unlimited daily ticket of 4.50€ became very useful!), and ended up near our hotel. As we walked toward our hotel in jet lagged exhaustion, we decided on Il Javolino which was just across the street from our hotel. Despite their happening vibe upstairs, they seated us downstairs where we had spaghetti and I had the famous Rissotto Milanese, periodically feeling the rumbling of a nearby subway.

We returned to our hotel to cash in our complimentary welcome drinks that led to tasty wines and snacks with a friendly bartender from Lake Como.

We end the night with much needed showers and propping up our feet as we get ready for more walking in Rome tomorrow. Amanda's Fitbit said we walked 22,714 steps - for once I'm not the only one tracking steps!

Travel Sales For the Win

Tonight, I'm off to Europe, again! So, my best friend, Amanda and I had been talking about a vacation and when Emirates announced a 48 hour sale to Milan for $400 a person, we were sold! Lucky for us, Delta matched those rates and we paid about $404. Although Emirates is known for nicer planes, I wanted to take advantage of my silver status. With that being said, I'm not sure if I'm more excited about the airfare or the trip, considering my passion for travel deals!

Just kidding, I'm excited to return to Italy. I went when I was 10 years old to visit my aunt who was living in Rome at the time. We went to Rome, Florence, and Venice - I even got to shake the hand of Pope John Paul II! I also have very vivid food memories of the delicious pastas and gelato. 

On this trip, we'll be in Milan, Rome, Naples, Capri, and Lake Como. A map link is posted on the right with our hotel details as well. Cannot wait to enjoy Italy again!

As a throwback, here's a photo from our family trip in 1992! Notice the massive video camera bag!

Mini-Sabbatical Pictures

Photos from Netherlands, Belgium, and Paris! About 713, not captioned. If you've been following the blog, the photos from the posts summarize the trip well.

End of the Sabbatical

We woke up the earliest today of this entire week and got ready to depart. We had breakfast crêpes and Rachel and I headed to Charles de Gaulle airport together. Our flights are just 30 minutes of each other while Mikey was flying out of Orly about 2 hours after us. 

In the train station, it was a bit of a zoo due to tracks being closed and then reopened. Rachel and I went up and down the platforms a few times. 

But the RER was easy and we departed ways at the airport. 

Thank you to Mikey and Rachel for not only a great week of reliving the past, but also making new memories. Thank you for always being there for me and part of my support network, especially the last few months. You guys both make me smile from the Gchat instant messaging conversations and the fact you guys were even happier for me than I was about the new job. 

Also, in honor of the joke we made a million times this week when we laughed:

http://youtu.be/-r7dveDEv-I

I'm super grateful for a relaxing week, as it will be busy for a bit. I have Confirmation tomorrow for my Sunday school student and then I start a new job - the first time in 11 years. I expect the 1st few months will be a lot of trial and error and hoping my bosses don't regret having hired me!

Thank you to all who've read and cared these past few weeks about my mini-sabbatical! On to new and different adventures!

Rainy Day in Paris

Our first rainy day in Paris! It reminds me of Gustave Caillebotte's "Rainy Day In Paris" which I love and hangs in the Art Institute in Chicago. 

For lunch, Rachel headed into work to meet and see some colleagues while Mikey and I enjoyed our presumably last breakfast in our Parisian apartment. 

We then headed to the Louvre and met Rachel. Here's a photo of entering the museum with the famous glass pyramids:

Below the Carousel Gate in front of the Louvre and the start of the Tuileries Gardens where the gypsy women try to get you to sign their petitions and pickpocket you, but we know better:

The Grand Gallery:

Napoleon III's Apartments that are amazing in detail and opulence:

And then, there is our masterpiece selfies series:

First, "Winged Victory of Samothrace":

Second, "Mona Lisa":

Third, "Venus de Milo":

Fourth, " ":

Only with friends like these and our sense of humor, could we take a photo series like this!

After the Louvre, we walked to Rue de Bac to go to Deyrolle, a famous taxidermy shop. This was something Rachel had read about. The stuffed animals were incredibly well preserved, but I was a little spooked. There was a horse, zebra, elephant, porcupine, peacocks, and etc. You couldn't take any photos though and everything was very expensive. 

We then walked to Champs - Élysées, where they had the Christmas market and where I took grainy photos of the Arc de Triumph. Here, we are sharing beignets shaped like gingermen as a pre - dinner snack:

We had reservations at Chez L'Ami Jean, a basque restaurant, recommended by Mikey's friend. We shared wine, a charcuterie plate, and I had sea scallops with amazing masted potatoes. 

After dinner, we took the metro home and rested. Although it might not sound that exciting, but the traveling, walking, and eating lots of cheese was probably getting to us. We leave tomorrow to head home which is exciting to see friends and family!

How We Roll

After our usual breakfast this morning, we took the metro to our Segway tour. Mikey and I had been on a Segway before, particularly as part of his wedding weekend activities years ago, but this was Rachel's first time! Again, since this was not our first trip here, it was another fun and new way to learn about and see the city. 

Here's a photo of us getting ready and learning our Segway skills:

Here's a collage of us on the Segway and learning from our Australian guide:

Here's a collage of the lamps, columns, and etc we've seen - the architectural detail in Paris is second to none:

A few more of things we saw:

And we did our final photos in front of the Eiffel Tower:

We had dinner tonight at a fondue place called "Pain, Vin, Fromage" in the Marais district with Rachel's colleague, Wendy whom she was posted with in India. We had a delicious dinner of chatting, sharing food, and talking shop!

Afterwards, we walked home which took only about 10 minutes and hung out in our Parisian apartment. 

Not sure if you can see these, especially if you don't have Facebook or are not friends with Mikey, but here's a video yesterday of our Segway choreography:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10100873126349605

Which is a reenactment of the Segway choreography we made up the day of his wedding here:

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10100523672108699

I Love Paris in the Springtime....

Well we're not here in the Spring, but the weather has been incredible. The skies have been clear and the weather very mild. 

Also, I forgot to post this photo last night - we felt this was very French and no worries, we did not drink these bottles:

Today, we opted for breakfast crêpes - I had a Nutella and banana crêpe. We enjoyed them as we walked to the Picasso museum. I remember going to this museum years ago, but it felt like a different experience as they had renovated the museum recently and it took over 3 years to complete. Here are some of his paintings that I enjoyed:

We then sat in a cafe for some coffee and afternoon snacks before we headed to Montmartre to visit Sacre Coeur. We walked up the steps to the beautiful Basilica. Here I lit a candle and we enjoyed the sweeping views of the city. Here are some pictures - the pretty ones are credited to Mikey:

After enjoying the hilltop views, we headed down to the center of the city for some light shopping and enjoying more Christmas windows, such as at Printemps Department Store, sponsored by Burberry below:

All of us were then looking forward to our reservations at the popular restaurant Spring, where we enjoyed a price fixe menu and excellent service. A photo collage of our meal that included scallops with truffles and pumpkin and wild hare as a few of the highlights:

As a side note, kudos to Rachel for rocking the boot after 5 stitches last week, especially as we walk over 12,000 steps a day:

We walked home and enjoyed relaxing with champagne and a movie (do you want to build a snowman?). It's been wonderful being able to spend time together, conversing deeply, and joking around all day long. Something you can only do with good friends for all seasons!

We may have also had a dance party late into the night, enjoying old school jams - just like college....