Carnivale

Carnivale...definitely something I will never forget. It all began with our train ride. There were seven of us (me, John, Courtney, Carla, Allie, Sam, and Kim). We were peacefully sitting in the train playing a game of rummy, when all of a sudden a guitar wielding bum came after us. Yes, this is a true story.




So, here's what happened. This guy, who obviously had about twenty too many drinks, slides in next to Allie. He begins the conversation by growling at her. This wouldn't have been too bad, except for the fact that he had a bloody cut on his head. Needless to say Allie, Kim, and Courtney quickly vacated their seats. This made the bum laugh because he was able to scare the stupid Americans, something he so fondly called us. The bum walked away, well, he was escorted away by the train guy, and the girls returned to their seats. Fortunately, the manly men we brought with us did not defend our honor. No worries though, we are big girls and can take care of ourselves...or so we thought.




About two minutes later John says that the bum will be back. The words were barely out of his mouth when the guy came sauntering up...well staggering up...and decided to caress Carla's arm. Sam, in a very chivalrous way, told the guy to step back and brushed his hand away. The bum then began cursing Sam in broken English, reminding us how stupid we were. He then begins growling at Carla again and put his skeevie hand on her. At this point we all kind of had it, including John. In fact, he was so annoyed that he jumped up on the table and took a Karate Kid stance to defend us. The bum, slightly upset now, grabbed his guitar and swung it at John. Luckily his aim was a little off. John's was not, however, and he managed to knock the guy over. Well, this really set him off. For the next two, intense, minutes John's foot hung in the air batting the guy's guitar away from mine and Carla's heads.




At this point, Carla had crawled into my lap and I had my hands wrapped around her head. While this may seem humorous, she totally would have gotten hit otherwise. The other girls had moved from their seats and were trying to get Carla and I to move out of our seats. We would have had to go through John's foot and the guitar, so we refrained. After the two intense and adrenaline pumping minutes, the train guy came back. He told the bum to leave the Americans alone, took his guitar, and then escorted him out of our train compartment. At the next stop the guy was arrested. And so began Carnivale.......




After our adventure, we very much needed to relax, but first we had to find good ole' Hotel Henry. We couldn't however pass up the photo op of a picture just outside the train station on the Grand Canal.

We finally made it to Hotel Henry, cleaned up, and then headed out into the night. We made our way to Piazza San Marco after a healthy snack of rice cakes. We were pretty desperate for food at that point.

Eventually we landed at a pizza place. The food was good, the beers were huge, and the wine flowed. It was an excellent way to begin our evening. Here, Sam models with his beer and bottle of wine....not that he drank that much.

Carla and John

Allie and Kim

After dinner we wandered around Venice looking for a watering hole. We stopped to take a few pictures. Here is most of the gang from left to right: John, Allie, Sam, Kim, me, and Carla.

Kim wanted to get a closer view of the water in one of the canals. Unfortunately she went a little too far and stepped right in.

We eventually found a place to hang out for a while. Kim and Courtney got their groove on while the rest of us enjoyed a refreshing beverage after our walk through the city. Here are Carla, Sam, and Allie enjoying their evening.

The walk home was an adventure. I somehow called upon my memory of walking through Venice in college and managed to get everyone home in one piece. Not quite sure how long it took us though. Here are Allie and Carla enjoying the walk.

We arrived home to discover that John, Courtney, and Kim had not arrived (we had spilt up earlier in the night). That meant that their door was locked and Courtney had the key, which also meant that Sam had no way to get in to his room. After waiting around for an hour or so for the others to get back, we finally got too tired and decided to put the beds together in the room I shared with Carla and Allie. Here is our ginormous bed.

All seemed well and we all slept really hard. When we woke up in the morning we discovered that Sam had left. We figured he must have heard the others arrive home, so he went to his bed. A little while later we heard what really happened.

As it turns out, Sam sleep walks. He apparently was looking for the bathroom and found himself downstairs....locked out. At this point the others had come back and figured Sam was with us, so no one knew he was actually missing. He did not sleep quite as well as the rest of us. Check out his bed.

The morning after our late night...John, Kim, and Courtney

The next day we wondered through the city. It was rainy and cold, but we still had a great time just getting lost...for the most part. Here is my quintessential Venice picture. Note the gondolier :).

Me, Carla, and Allie stopped at the top of the Rialto Bridge to take a picture

Another picture along the Grand Canal

In the true spirit of Carnivale we decided to have our faces painted. Here I am...the guinea pig.

How cool does that look?!

Wanting to be just like me, Allie and Carla followed suit.

The Asian tourists were so impressed with Allie's face that they took a picture.

Sam decided to leave his masculinity behind and join the girls in the face painting.

Here we are looking very Carnivale-ish

And then here is John....just John :)

I couldn't pass up taking a picture of this amazing costume. There were people dressed up like this all over the city. Supposedly they rent costumes for several hundred euro just to be looked at during Carnivale.

After walking around for what seemed like forever, we finally managed to find a place that would supply us with libations. As you can see, we are very happy.

As true Americans, we managed to find the Irish Pub in the city. Here I am in my Carnivale mask with Carla.

John, Carla, Allie, and Sam

On Sunday, John, Sam, and Courtney took the early train home, while me, Allie, Carla, and Kim hung around Venice for a few extra hours. It was definitely worth it! We did a bit of shopping, sight-seeing, and then had an amazing lunch next to the Rialto Bridge before heading home. Here are a few pictures from our last day.

Another amazing Carnivale costume

Our little restaurant along the Grand Canal

A view of the Rialto Bridge from our restaurant

Overall, Venice was an amazing trip with lots of adventure. I would highly recommend a visit during Carnivale, or actually any other time of year.

A Little Brazilian Flair in a Little Italian Town

For Tim's 20-11 birthday, a group of us (17!) went to Como (as in Lake Como in Italy) for Brazilian. I have heard of these Brazilian restaurants before, you know, the kind that give you endless amounts of meat. I have to say, I was fairly impressed. It was great to have real meat, know what it is, have it taste like meat, and enjoy it. I'm used to the dining hall where you are never really sure if you are eating baby horse. Anyway, we all had a great time celebrating with Tim and gorging ourselves like the carnivores we are. Here are a few pics from the evening.

Birthday boy and Blair

My dinner plate....a little gross to look at, but it tasted soo good!

The Group

(Thanks for looking Carla and Allie!)

Carla and her Italian Stallion, Matteo

So, after eating some great food, we also got a little entertainment from a Brazilian dancer. The dancer's sexuality was questionable. She was a six foot amazon "woman". Now, I think she actually was a woman. While I may not live in southern CA anymore, I still retain some of my knowledge from growing up there. One thing I can pick out easily is whether or not a woman is "enhanced" or not. This woman was not enhanced. When you watch the video listen carefully for my comment that was amazingly picked up by my camera. Oh, sorry that it is sideways. I have no idea how to fix that, so if you have any ideas please let me know.

As I said before, it was Tim's birthday. The good friends we are, we made sure to tell the owner of the place. Well, the amazon woman also found out somehow and Tim got a little lap dance for his b-day.

Dinner was awesome, the company was awesome, and the entertainment, well that's fairly self-explanatory.

So, people always say there is nothing like skiing in the Swiss Alps....

...and that is totally true! I had the amazing opportunity to go to Andermatt last weekend for a day of skiing. The drive alone was awesome. Andermatt is only about an hour or so away from where I live, but you gain thousands of feet of elevation in that short time. The coolest part was going through "the tunnel". The tunnel goes through the mountains, literally. You also build the most elevation in the tunnel. Now, when I'm talking about a tunnel, I'm talking about a 27 km long tunnel. It's crazy! Okay, so on one side of the tunnel, the Ticino side, it was beautiful and sunny...the perfect day for skiing. When we got to the other side it was overcast and colder. However, luck was on our side. You have to take a gondola up to the part of the mountain where you ski. Shortly after arriving up there, the clouds began to clear and we saw...well you'll see. Check out the pictures!

We were walking to get our rentals and this little house was tucked just off the street-how Swiss!

The main road in the little town of Andermatt. I have to say, this is definitely one of the most quintessential Swiss towns I have been in.

Emily and I skied the morning together. Here are the clouds clearing.

After lunch I took another gondola ride up to the peak of the mountain with Allie and Sam. This was my 360 degree view up there. It was really strange to ski above the tree line. I was able to get some amazing pictures as a result though.

Me and Sam about to head down the slope.

When we got to down to the main ski area from the peak, we noticed a cloud creeping up the mountain. Here are Allie and Sam preparing to ski through the cloud. Talk about creepy!

Do I really need to say anything about this picture?

Going up through the cloud for our last run of the day.

I can't say enough good things about this ski trip. The skiing was great, the company was great, and the scenery was just amazing. So, I am now going to be one of those people who says that there is nothing like skiing in the Swiss Alps.

Catching Up

Okay, so I have been pretty lame about updating my blog for the past month, so here are a few things that have happened:

The First Montagnola Snow

This is a view from my apartment of the crazy amount (for this part of Switzerland) of snow. Unfortunately, no snow day at school--I just realized that I miss VA for that reason right now. Who doesn't love a good snow day?!

Raclette at the HoJo

Okay, so Mike and Erica planned a raclette evening out. Raclette is a Swiss cheese that you heat up and scrap off onto potatoes, bread, etc. It is very tasty. Anyway, we couldn't get into the restaurant down the street, so we found a place in Mendrisio that had raclette. Little did we know, the little place was actually a little hotel. The little hotel reminded all of us of the classy establishment in the US, The Howard Johnson. The bibs we wore really added to the classiness of the place :).

Home At Last!!!!!

I was finally able to make it home in mid-December. Much to my surprise, my man treated me to a Christmas tree. This has been a little bone of contention in our relationship, so I'm glad he has finally agreed that I am right :). Isn't it cute?!

Back to CA

After spending a few quality days in VA, I headed to CA to see my family and plan, plan, plan for this wedding. I did manage an evening out with my best gals, Megan and Marilee. Here we are at Mar's house admiring my gorgeous ring!

Like I said before, I spent the rest of my Christmas break planning for the Big Day. I found a dress (yeah!) but I just can't post those pictures. What if he saw? Ellis came out for part of the ordeal and endured a few days of non-stop wedding. We both had a great time and we can thank my parents enough for organizing everything for us. Ellis and I also took engagement photos, which you can see at www.jimkennedyphotographers.com under the "Proofs" link. Find my last name and follow the directions for logging in at the top of the page.

I arrived back to CH in early January and I have been making my way through each week ever since, enjoying the few day trips I have taken. Check out the next posting to see what I've been up to!

A Place so Nice!!

Thanksgiving weekend is usually a time to relax, eat good food, spend time with the people you love, start getting ready for Christmas, and count your blessings. I was able to do most of these things even in a place where the sacred holiday of Turkey Day is rudely ignored.

I actually had to work on Thanksgiving day (half day followed by a staff meeting--for all you teachers out there, I KNOW! Who does that???). After the very "productive" meeting, I headed to the train station with Emily, Lizzie, and Allie. We were off on our six hour journey to Baden-Baden, Germany. As coined by former president Bill Clinton, Baden-Baden is a place so nice, they named it twice. While I don 't always agree with Mr. Clinton, he was definitely right about Baden-Baden.

Baden-Baden is located in the Black Forest of Germany near the French boarder. It's name means baths...like what you bathe in. Since the 19th century, Baden-Baden has been a resort for royalty, famous people, etc. because of its healing natural springs. The natural springs are precisely the reason we travelled to Baden-Baden because they have two fabulous, and relatively cheap, spas that use the water.

We arrived in Baden-Baden on Thanksgiving evening. We stayed in a very nice hotel. After dropping our things off we headed to dinner at the NY Times recommended restaurant, Lowenbrau. This is a traditional Bavarian restaurant...costumes and everything. We enjoyed some amazing hefeweizen beer (Mom, that's a really good wheat beer they make in Germany) and an interesting Bavarian feast. We decided to go all out because it was Thanksgiving and that's what you do. Before eating we even went around the table and said what we were thankful for. We were all really missing home, but misery loves company so we were able to enjoy our meal...kind of.

Per our waiters recommendation, I order the game pie. I was thinking it was like a meat pie, which I was excited about. INSTEAD, so weird pate looking thing showed up. Fortunately, the servings were large so everyone shared their dishes of normal food--chicken, beef, sausage--with me. Never trust a German when it comes to "game pie." Something definitely gets lost in translation. After dinner we headed back to the hotel and promptly feel asleep after our long day of travelling.

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast. I discovered that the Germans really like pickled things--fish, eggs, vegetables. Fortunately, the hotel had many other options for breakfast, so we were well fed. After breakfast Lizzie and I took a walk around the town before we headed out to the spas, the reason we came to Baden-Baden. Here are a few pictures from our walk:

A pretty Bavarian church

Traditional Bavarian architecture...the town was so quaint!
Standing in the rain on one of the main streets

There were two spas to choose from, Friedrichsbad or Caracalla. The Friedrichsbad is the traditional spa where people have been going to become healthy and rejuvenated since the 1800s. This includes the royalty of Europe and great Americans like Mark Twain. It is designed like a traditional Roman/Irish bath, so the focus is not spa treatments like we are used to in the US, but bathing in the healing waters of the natural spring. The other spa, Caracalla, is the much more modern spa, more like what we have in the States. We opted for the Friedrichsbad, because when in Rome...

Like I said, the Friedrichsbad focuses on bathing. In fact, there are 17 stages of bathing you go through. These include showers, two different saunas, a steam room, different temperature pools (including a freezing pool), getting scrubbed down my large German women--they let you know you are finished by spanking you on your behind...really), more showers, lotion, nap time in a cocoon of warm blankets, and then relaxing in a solarium. It was absolutely amazing and my skin never felt softer. Oh, one more thing about Friedrichsbad, it is totally nude the entire time with a mix of both sexes. This made it very interesting, but I have never felt so good about my body as I did that day :). The nude thing was a little nerve-wracking at first, especially because I was with people I work with, but eventually you get over it...then the guys enter the picture and you try not to look. It was weird, but like I said, you never feel as good about your body as after seeing naked and old German men and women. Here is a before picture from the spa:

And the after picture

After our naked spa adventure, we decided to find some lunch. While walking down a street we happened to notice an alpaca. We thought this was hilarious, so I thought I'd share :).

Another funny thing about Germany, or at least Baden-Baden, is that all the pharmacies have gesundheit written on their signs. As I learned, gesundheit means health, and when someone says it to you they are wishing you good health. I tried to take a picture, but it is hard to see. Anyway, there is a fun fact for the day.

After lunch we headed back to our hotel and got our things together to travel to the next place on our journey, Strasbourg, France. Strasbourg is in the much disputed Alsace region of France. The area has belonged to both Germany and France, switching back and forth several times over the centuries. The reason we decided to go to Strasbourg was because Emily, one of the girls I was travelling with, spent a semester in college studying there and told us about its amazing Christmas market. We had to see this for ourselves, especially because it is the oldest Christmas market in Europe...it has been going on since the 1500s.

We arrived in Strasbourg (about and hour and a half from Baden-Baden) in the evening. After dropping our things off at the Holiday Inn (yes, the Holiday Inn) we went to find something to eat. We made our way through the amazingly lit and decorated streets of the city to Chez Yvonne. The restaurant serves traditional Alsatian food which is a mix of French and German cuisine. We also had a very nice bottle of Pinot Gris made in the Alsace region, a place famous for its white wines. Here are a few pictures from that evening:

The next morning we headed to the Christmas market. We were there on the opening weekend of the market, so it was packed, but absolutely wonderful. We began our walk through the market with a glass of vin chaud, or mulled wine. The way they make it is amazing and throughout the day we enjoyed several glasses. There are all types of goods at the market--ornaments, food, decorations, leather, candles, woodwork, etc. It seemed that every way you turned there was something new you wanted to buy. I satisfied this urge by doing my Christmas shopping. Here is a picture of the market, or a small part of it. The market was throughout the entire city.

Now, shopping at the market is not the only thing to do in Strasbourg. There is also an amazing cathedral called Notre Dame in the center of the city. The detail in the architecture is so intricate. It was really amazing.

One of our favorite parts of the market was the Marche Des Bredle. Bredle is Christmas cookies and sweets. There was an entire tent where you could walk through and taste the sweets (and buy them of course). It was heaven!

Outside the Marche Des Bredle was this beautifully carved creche.

After gorging ourselves on cookies, we made our way back to our hotel to rest before going out in the evening. Here are a few pictures from our walk back:

This is the Protestant Cathedral in the city--almost as amazing as the Catholic cathedral

After a rest in our hotel, we headed our for the evening to hear a Christmas concert in the Cathedral. The music was beautiful and the whole concert really put us in the Christmas spirit. Unfortunately, they don't heat cathedrals, so we almost froze to death during the concert. After the concert we walked around the city and came upon the lit Christmas tree. It was an absolutely perfect way to end the day.

The next morning we walked back to the market to kill some time before our 1pm train. We came upon this beautiful tree on our walk.

I can't say enough wonderful things about Baden-Baden and Strasbourg. For anyone looking for unique places to go in Europe, I highly recommend these two cities. While I would have loved to have been with my family on Thanksgiving, I am very thankful for the opportunity I had to travel to such amazing places.

Buon Natale!!