6000 words

I'm working again and there is VERY tight internet security where I am, so blogging will be sporadic and probably at strange times (for me) for a while. But, hey, I've still got evenings and weekends, right?

But tonight I am boring and have a headache, so...picture time! This series is from Italy...Milan and Bergamo. FYI, my future travels are not all planned, but will include Berlin, a quick trip to my favorite London, Istanbul and to the US in fall. But for now, back to Italy.

Close up of skulls in an ossuary chapel in Milan. It smelled like dust, candles and, well, desiccated bones in there. I'll never forget the smell. Not bad, not good just....dry. Wierd that I now know what bones smell like. And scary that it was familiar somehow.

There were four corners like this, all made of bones, plus the altar. It went up all the way to the top of the 20 foot walls.

In the canal district of Milan. It used to be kind of like Venice, canals instead of roads, but most of them were paved over. This was one area where the canals remained. I liked the way the people looked in their windows.

Ah, the Duomo in Milan. People are allowed (for a fee) to go up on the roof. Amazing, it was like being on top of a wedding cake.

A cat in Bergamo. It's in a 10th century church yard. It was thundering and raining like mad when I took the picture.
Food window in Bergamo. God the food was amazing. And shops like this were EVERYWHERE. I brought back bags and bags of dried porcini mushrooms. Also I got pasta, polenta, Italian sausages (I just CAN'T get them here and I've missed them something awful), and cheese. I've been an Italian cooking fiend. The dried mushrooms are so flavorful. My Dad told me that when my grandmother went to Italy, she made a big deal of bringing back the same kind of mushrooms, too.....funny how simple things like that are genetic! I wish she was still alive, I'd love to talk to her about all this travel I've been doing and compare notes.

A progression of photos from the evening of the World Cup.

The first arrivals. Notice the scooter at the crosswalk...they were the very first to appear.

After five minutes. The smoke is from this SMART guy who would rev his motorcycle while holding the brakes so that the rear tire smoked on the pavement. His motorcycle is going to last a long time with that sort of treatment. He was totally redlining it.

Me about 15 minutes into the festivities. We were that close.

Looking down towards the train station....the crowds just kept coming.

People would set off fireworks right there in the crowd. Fun to watch, but must've been a bit scary for those close by. Or maybe not...they were all on a World Cup winner's high. I've never seen so many happy people in one place....

Directly beneath our window.

Looking up the street towards Bergamo Alta Citte. (Old city.)

Here's party central, in its usual state. Notice the Old City up on the hill? It's GORGEOUS.

THAT was interesting.

Well, we were in Italy the night they won the World Cup. You just can't plan these things, as a tourist. They are serendipitous occurences that you will remember for a lifetime.

Not only that, but our hotel was at the absolute epicenter of the after game festivities. Who knew? By day, normal intersection, by night, 35,000 of your best pals all hollering, screaming, setting off firecrackers, revving their motorcycle engines and waving Italian flags ranging in size from small to bigger than a house. We could not have picked a better location had we tried......right out the window, three floors down, all Bergamo partied like it was 1999......

We'd had a long day of walking and were tired and full from an excellent dinner. We went back to the hotel to chill and watch the game. We watched the game (interminable, sorry to say) and right as it finished...we heard a scooter came whizzing into the intersection, the two occupants screaming, honking and waving a flag. They were first on scene at what was to become Bergamo Party Central. We ran to the window to watch what was going on. Two minutes later, there were 50 people. Then 100. Then rapidly it became 1000, with some guy revving his motorcycle and doing smoky tire burning wheelies everywhere (I could have done without that.) Everyone was either waving or wearing an Italian flag. We were watching it all from our hotel window...it was like the best view of Mardi Gras, New Year's Eve and Fourth of July combined.

The crowd grew and grew and grew. It was massive. I estimate 35,000 people....up and down and all around the street (there were wide squares on both sides of the street as well.)

We had to be up at 7 the next day to catch our flight, and were dead tired from two days of intensive walking (and, ahem, wine drinking and pasta eating). But the party was infectious and we watched it for about two hours.

Mayhem doesn't even begin to describe it. Really. Fireworks shooting off in the middle of the crowd. Soccer balls being kicked around everywhere, usually landing on some unsuspecting person's head. The person would laugh and kick it on, to land on another person's head. People standing on fountains, statues, and cars. One enterprising (and very strong) young guy climbed a light pole and tied the flag to the top, then shimmied back down into the arms of his compadres. I later spied him on top of a traffic light. He was a climber extraordinaire.

The cops (I only saw a few) just stood aside and let it all happen. The crowd was so HAPPY, you could feel the vibe. No one did anything mean or destructive, at least, from what I could see. (I wonder if a crowd like this would be allowed to spontaneously occur in the US anymore?)

The partying went on until the wee hours of the night. I give the hotel major cred for the fact that, even though we were overlooking it all so closely, once the sound-deadening windows were closed, the noise level went down 80%. Meaning...it was still loud, but with ear plugs you could almost pretend that the whole population of Bergamo was NOT outside the window screaming, shouting, drinking and blowing air horns. I would have to recomend the Capello da Oro hotel in Bergamo highly.

Yes we took pictures, but I need to get them off Rich's camera....then I'll post them.

In other news....on the flight TO Italy, a guy got sick and had to be taken off the plane in an ambulance on arrival (scary, it really was worrisome, but there was a doctor on board and the crew were great) and the plane landed so rough that many of the people on the plane screamed. So it was one of the best (capable crew) and worst (learner pilot?) flights I've ever had. The flight sort of set the tone for our weekend...expect the unexpected.....

out and about

I'll be posting sporadically for the next few days...going on a little jaunt. To Bergamo, Italy. The forecast is thunderstorms all weekend. Cool! I love thunderstorms.

It got up to 93 today!

I leave you with a picture:


Graffitti'ed alley in Milan.

Milano! Aldo!

Milano!

If it is your first time to Europe, I would not start in Milan. Most people, well, American people, think of sidewalk cafes, slow strolls down romantic streets and old buildings when they think of a trip to Italy. If that's what you are after, Milan is not your town. Sidewalk cafes are not near as prevalent as I would have thought, Milan is very industrial and fairly modern and it ain't no strolling town. It's go go go, all the time. In fact, Milan reminded me of Oslo....very similar buildings, streetcars everywhere, people zipping hither and thither and a paucity of remaining historical sites, compared to other Italian towns. (Milan was seriously bombed in WWII.) It feels almost...gritty.

That being said, I liked Milan. No, it's not on the top of my list as far as European cities, but it's got its charms.
It's easy to get around, especially once you figure out the tram system, which is very convenient.
The people are very nice.
The shopping is great. Even in the snootiest stores, the salespeople are, as a rule, very friendly. (Yes I went to Prada and Cavalli and Louis Vuitton. Yes I felt comfortable in there. No, it was not like Julia Roberts in "Pretty Woman", you know where she goes shopping and they won't help her?) (Oh and oddly enough, I bought nothing, as what I did want they never had my size**, and what they did have in my size I did not want. This proves my life-long theory: When you actually have money and want to shop, there is nothing to buy. You only find the great stuff when you are poor, then you want EVERYTHING.Which is why rich people stay rich, when you can have it all, why bother?)
The Duomo, the cathedral there, is fabulous, especially the outside, because they let you climb around on the roof. I felt like I was climbing around on a giant wedding cake.
And the weather was GORGEOUS.

Our hotel was WONDERFUL. The Hotel Lancaster, the staff were the friendliest I have ever encountered in a hotel, the room was great and the bathroom was 5 star quality. I LOVED the bathroom. The only problem is that the Lancaster is in a sort of boring area, there is nothing nearby in terms of restaurants and so on, so you have to walk or catch a tram to get to where the action is. However, the hotel itself more than made up for the lack of stuff to do around it, so I give it a big thumbs up.

** Hello, people at Hogan? I really want those silver and black sandals you had..can you PLEASE find me a size 41 somewhere?

Aldo!

For me, the highlight of the trip to Milan was getting my hair done at Aldo Coppola. Ladies, if you find yourself in Milan, and you've got curly hair, go to Aldo Copploa and get yourself a haircut! It will cost a bomb, but it's worth it.

After my recent hair disaster, I'd been feeling pretty scruffy. I needed a cut, I needed a color adjustment and I honestly needed an attitude adjustment, too, as I've been down on myself and feeling pretty gnarly. So I gathered up my courage and trudged up the the 8th floor of the Rinascente department store, directly across from the Duomo, to get my hairs prettied up. I don't know about you, but walking cold into a (you think) snooty hair salon in a foreign country where you can't say "boo" in the language is a bit scary. But I was desperate. So I did it.

It was a bit touch and go in the beginning. I was trying to describe my recent hair disaster to folks who spoke VERY LITTLE English and my choice of words may have caused a few disconnects. When I mentioned I wanted permanent color, they thought I wanted a perm! So I backed WAY off that, and finally grabbed a swatch of hair from underneath my head, at the nape of my neck and pointed at it and said "good natural color" and pointed at the carrot-y top of my head and said "bad, mistake color". Luckily, I am a bit of a ham and an actress, so communicated by way of facial language, hand gestures and the odd word or two. A very small perky guy came up, showed me some color samples of hair and told me he would mix them together to get me back to my natural shade of auburn. I said "good?" and he said, "good". So he took me to the back of the place, glopped some goo on my head and half an hour later I had FABULOUS rich, deep natural color, like what I was born with, but better. Lots better. And way more expensive.

For the cut, I basically made lion noises and fluffed my hands around my head in the international sign of "big hair" and this tiny guy laughed and said "Ah! Italy hair!" and made my hair his bitch within 15 minutes. His scissors flew about my head, he hopped around and flashed about and practically had to stand on my shoulders to cut my hair, he was so short, but when he was done, I gotta say, I was gorgeous. Auburn, wild maned, la dolce vita out of Texas, gorgeous.

The next day I wore my contacts ( I usually hide behind my glasses), made up my eyes and with the red hair flying and the green eyes flashing, I felt great. I sashayed about Milan like an old style Italian movie starlet. If there had been a fountain, I would have frolicked in it. I got flirted on madly by men in the street, in shops, in cafes...it was just what a girl needed to keep her confidence up. Apparently, Italian men like tall, curvy, slightly goofy Texan gals with deep auburn (titian) hair and green eyes. Hell, even my own HUSBAND flirted with me, and girls, seriously, when was the last time your husband flirted with you?

So, yeah, in 4 months or so, you might see me flying back to Milan just to go to Aldo Coppola to get my hair cut again....

Oh, and did I mention the view from the salon while I was getting my hair cut?

Milano!

(Mmm...Mint Milanos. DAMN this diet. Any word you say lately makes me think of a food that I like. And that I probably miss. It's kind of sucking. However, I am NOT the sort of dieter who denies myself everything and can only have three carrots and an egg white a day. It's all about moderation. Basically, what works for me is just cut the calories, but how you get those calories is up to you. Thus, if I want that bowl of Fruit Loops, I am gonna have it. Just skip the mocha instead. Have lettuce instead of that tortilla. You know the drill.

Um...this was not what I was going to write about, however. Not at all. So shut me up on all this diet shit, which is boring anyhow, and move the fuck on...oh, but my friend Mary did tell me yesterday my face was looking thinner, so maybe I've lost a few ounces? All...in...my...chin?)

We're going to Milano! (cookies) (damn)

Ok, so I have my wardrobe all planned for Milan. I'm going with a brown and white with silver theme. I did need to buy one pair of shoes to make it totally work (and DAMN I wish I had gotten that cute white and brown Coach purse I saw at the outlets in San Marcos last January...it would have worked perfectly with all this stuff. It was really, REALLY on sale and I loved it, but didn't get it. Foot, meet Ass. Kick at will.) The shoes I got are white Aerosoles, which is ironic in that in the US they cost about $35 and here? Substantially more. But maybe I will appreciate them that much more? I AM wearing them today, so that is a start. I realized it's the first pair of shoes I've bought since...since....um, March? And that may well be a total Karla record.

I'm not bringing ANY jeans to Milan, except a white pair a la Elizabeth Hurley, though in a substantially bigger size. Then it's all just a medley of brown and white, but also a really cute brown and white woven straw hat I got at H&M to sort of finish it off. So I have to weigh the options...nice fluffy hair or cute hat (but with hat hair)? Hmmmm.

I am also going to see about getting my hair cut in Milan. And possibly getting some sort of reparation to the recent damage I did to the color, which is starting to show again with the semi-permanent color wearing off.

It's been 6 weeks or so since I've traveled anywhere. That might be part of why I have been so glum. No trips to look forward to. I need to keep in travel practice. One hard part has been my travel buddies have all moved away, so no girls to jaunt off with anymore. Not like last year.

Oh, and here's a news flash! I just saw an ad on tv for a brand new product, never before available in Norway. All the ads are all touting this "new" product. Guess what it is?

Rice Krispies. New!

Yeah. We are finally getting Rice Krispies. Wonder how much negotiating with the customs folks they had to do to bring THOSE in here.

Sheesh.

In which I show I don't know nuthin' about nuthin'

I've updated some blog links in the sidebar. Unfortunately, in doing so, some fonts went bigger and some went smaller and I don't frigging know why. So, if you find the link to you being in little bitty print, it's NOT because I don't love you (and I am not being a Texan-ist) it's just I don't effing know HOW that happened. Methinks I need to take a web design course. And I bet this looks like shit in Internet Explorer, but as it almost pains me to even open that software now, I really never check. Anyone wanna help me make this blog look like a real blog and not like a badly managed Blogger template? Can work out trade and post you credit for your help.

Other news:

Haven't lost any weight at all. I've been walking and stuff, but apparently my newly aged metabolism is all about building me a little belly. THAT is not acceptable. Big ass, I can handle. Belly? No effing WAY. Will have to go to step two. Which I am not happy about. To that end: I can only have my mochchocolattayayas twice a week. No soft drinks, but if I am CRAVING one I can go get a small can of Coke but only if I walk to the farthest end of town for it. No drinking during the week. And (*weep*) I believe I will have to institute portion control. Hell and damnation.

Next week we are going to Milan. I tried, today, to book tickets to see The Last Supper, but the lady on the phone was very nice when she sort of snorted and said "Sorry! Nothing available until mid July!" Arg.

I didn't want to see that stinky old masterpiecce anyhow.

While in Milan I am going to get my hairs done somewhere fabulous, so that I can swish my head around when I get back and say I had my coif done in Milan. Sounds fab, no? Might also have my disastrous color fixed...I am sure if I tell them I want to be a like a Titian redhead they will understand? All fiery hair and flowing locks. That's what I will go for. ( Note to self: Must learn the Italian phrase for "Fiery hair and flowing locks". )

Then of course, there is the issue of what to pack for Milan. I must admit I have become fairly grubby when traveling, choosing comfort over style, but dammit, I wanna get back to my fashion girl roots in Milan. I'm thinking sleek black skirts and whimsical flats. Maybe a fun sundress or two, very La Dolce Vita. (Note to self: Find whimsical flats.) I am going to FLOAT down the streets of Milan in flowy skirts and trailing scarves. Rather like I did in Venice last June.

(Damn has it already been a year since Venice?) I loved the wardrobe I brought to Venice. I really hammed it up and I felt fabulous. It was so great to get out of jeans and the usual schmatta I normally wear. It was all about being romantic and putting in a little effort.

Besides, the flowy dresses? Hide the new tum-tum.