Around the World - Week 3

ITALY!

Italy has been great. I've been able to stay in the same hotel for 5 nights in a row! It's a miracle. I've actually gotten settled a bit - no running around and packing every day off to a new place. Ahhh the finer things in life. Here is my new home. Quaint, isn't it?

FREETIME - LAGO DI COMO

I had Sunday free and I didn't feel like fighting the Milan tourist crowds, so I decided to take a day trip. I went to a nearby lake called Lake Como, only 1 hour outside the city. Here is my train.

And one of my first views of the lake. Gorgeous!

It had a cute little town center too.

I really couldn't get enough of the lake views. I LOVE lakes with mountains in the background. It reminds my of my family's lake house up on Lake George.

I soon realized across the lake that there was a little path that went up to the top of the nearby mountain. I was on a mission to find out how to get up there.

Finally I found the bottom. It was called the Funicolare (I think that means cable car...or something like it) and it went up to the top to a little town called Brunate. I immediately bought a ticket.

This is inside the station. Very interesting.

And the view on the way up.

And the view from the top. Ahhhhh.

After hiking up and down the hilly streets of Brunate, I got tired and found a little restaurant with a patio that overlooked the lake. I sat down for a nice glass of wine to relax a bit (and that glass of wine was only 3 euro - so like less than 5 bucks. What a deal! )

What a nice relaxing Sunday afternoon. :)

BACK TO WORK!

Monday morning brought more hospital visits. I'm not actually posting pictures of work but rather some random interesting things I saw. The first is the hospital bar (which in Italy pretty much is a coffee bar or cafe.) We must've had like 10 espressos at these bars. It's like an addiction in Italy. Here is my boss Raffaele and our Italian host Filippo enjoying their espresso.

Here is a random sign I saw in one of the bathrooms. I love weird english translations.

And I can't forget happy hour! After a long day at the hospital there's nothing better than a little apertif! Here I am with an Italian favorite - campari and soda (it actually was pretty gross, Ididnt drink it but I like the picture!)

Hmm...that was a little random. Oh well, on to the food!

MORE FOOD!

So I received mixed reactions on my food pictures from last week. Joey thinks food is boring and doesn't like to see it. But it seems like other people find it interesting. So you know what? I'm going to post it and if you don't like it just scroll on down!

This is fresh coconut sold on from a little waterfall thing on a cart in central Milan. I think this is currently my FAVORITE thing about Italy. I love these little coconut slices. They aren't sweet or anything like coconut I've had before. They are just nutty and amazing!

Here is another of my Italian favorites: bruschetta. I don't know where they get these tomatoes but they are heaven on a plate!

And of course, the PIZZA! I like it with some fresh rucola (arugula) on top. Mmm...thin crusted, olive oily, and delcious!

And my last Italian favorite - un cappucino! Yum!

I also went out for a couple of nicer dinners. Here I am at the ristorante Mediterannea. This is one of Filippo's favorite fish restaurants so he took us out and ordered everything for us. Here I am with the "starters"...raw shrimp, mussels, oysters, octopus, salmon, tuna...I actually don't even know what half of it was...

And here is the second round of "starters." Not sure what all of it is but I think some cooked octopus, shrimp salad, potato octopus salad, anchovy, breaded clam?...

And then the first course...scallop and shrimp risotto and clam linguine. This was probably the best dish.

After all those "starters," I didn't have room for a main course, so that was it. Everything was good but my american stomach just wasn't prepared for all that weird food. I still don't think I feel 100% normal...

The next night, Raffaele and I got a recommendation from the hotel to go to ristorante ilia. I like their sign!

Our dinner was delicious (they filleted the fish right at the table!) but the real treat here was the desserts! Check out the carts they bring around!

It was a tough choice but I got this flaky pie cake thing. Amazing!

Now I'm hungry! Actually, no, not true. I'm full!

SHOPPING

In between work and eating, we found a little time to do some shopping. Our hotel is right in the heart of the shopping district so we didn't have a choice!

Raffaele got some new shoes...

And so did I. I got some puma sneakers.

Here are my final selections - my blue puma sneakers (which I LOVE!), purple striped sunglasses that are too big for my face (but super awesome), a scarf and some colored pens from the Muji store. Shopping can be fun!

GOODBYE ITALY, HELLO JAPAN AND JOEY!

I started my 24 hour journey to Japan on Emirates air - the arabic airline.

It was the best flight experience I've ever had. The service and food was outstanding, the plane had mood lighting and fake stars when the lights went off, and great entertainment (I watched 5 episodes of Glee!) and cool features - like 2 camera views that allow you to see out the front of the plane like the pilot and under the plane. The picture below is on take off of the runway. Very cool!

Unfortunately though, I couldn't get a direct flight to Tokyo and had to have a layover in Dubai. The Dubai airport was insane. It was so super modern and huge. And it was crazy busy after midnight! My flight to Tokyo left at 3 am and I was ready to get some sleep.

Ten hours later I was in Japan and I was with Joey!

Now we have all week to explore the wonders of Japan. Look forward to those adventures when I return back to the good ole US. And I realize that my posts are getting longer and longer...I apologize about that. I promise to do some really short ones once things are normal again..

Sayonara!