What Is Carole Up To Now?

Carole is wandering the world. Having had a couple successful careers, as a software engineer then a technical marketer, it's time to take a sabbatical and plan for the next big thing. New philosphy: "Life is a banquet, and most poor suckers are starving to death."

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Second half of Italy

More shopping in Alberobello. Great shopping!!! I’m now on board with this. Got shoes myself – some high-heeled sneakers, great pants and 2 tops. The coolness of the climate made me think that what I was buying will work in Munich. The sneakers are great. They look better than my other walking shoes (mountainy shoes from REI) and they’re great to walk in.

We wandered among the old houses in Alberobello, with their conical, stacked stone roofs. We don’t know why they built them like this, but the houses were very cool inside. It hints that the summers are usually much hotter than we were experiencing.



Renu, Judi, Anna, outside a church.



I’m in the garden of a house we toured.



We had a great lunch in town, fantastic pasta that they made fresh, of course.

Then we drove to Osituna, another town in the interior region. We could see the sea from there, but it wasn’t close. And it was too cold and windy to enjoy the beach anyhow.

Judi and Renu enjoy the view



We were going to Casa Mia for dinner, someone from last night had made us a reservation. But it turned out that we had to drive there, and we didn’t want to do that so we ate at another place in town. This was our worst meal by far. They didn’t get the concept ‘vegetarian’, served Renu a plate of pasta with plain tomato sauce and some meat. Ooops. Then she got a dish of pasta with the bruschetta topping mixed in, and it was cold. Very disappointing dinner. After, we went back through the old town Mojito, the bar that we celebrating its opening. We found out it had been in town for a couple years, then moved to this location. Too much Mojito, I should have learned that lesson in Barca, but I apparently had to do it again.

Sunday we planned to go to the beach – beach? Shit weather – cold and sprinkling. We headed to the seaside town of Polignani a mare to find hotel. It was on the way back to the airport, to reduce our drive the next day. We tried Hotel de Grotte, no dice.

The sea at the edge of Polignano a mare



We drove carefully up the tiny streets, stopped at some people and asked them. It turned out that one had an apt they rent out, but it was booked. In talking with Victoria, she pointed us to Ca Blu, a B&B. Renu & I went there, winding through old town to find it. We had secured 2 rooms with Renu’s passport, went back to the car. Turned out while we were gone, someone’s brother called to say he was not coming that day. the apartment on Via Anemone had opened up. We took it because it was close to the car – not 500 meters to drag the luggage.

I read in a book recently, a character opined that the soundtrack of 20th century Europe was the sound of tanks in city streets. I believe the soundtrack of 21st century Europe is suitcases being rolled over cobblestones.

We settled in to this apartment. Very pretty, vaulted stone ceilings. It was cold, though. Judi found the remote to turn on the ceiling heaters. We headed into town for lunch, and ended up back at at Ca Blu – fantastic. We had great pastas, unusual. Renu & I had pesto with Gamberini, Anna had pasta with an orange-based Gamberini sauce and Judi had gnocci with mussels. The place was packed, there was a big family gathering in the next room. It was fun watching the food streaming out of the kitchen headed that way. We went for gelato after, a place that had been recommended in the online guide sites. It was amazing. The weather was so cold that we stood inside the place to eat it, but it still tasted great. We then drove to the grotto, a local cave tour attraction, but the next tour was in an hour and it was cold and raining by now so we bagged it.

Aged olive trees, with huge trunks in the countryside here.



We got back to town and were foiled – could not cross the main street to get to the apartment. It looked like they were blocking the streets for a festival.

We didn’t see this turned on, but it looked pretty.



So we parked in a gas station, and walked towards a Bar for coffee. Saw the restaurant for dinner on the way. In the bar, there was a group having Special Coffees – to die for. Baileys, espresso, lemon rind, cream. The folks said that they drove 50 K for the coffee, and it was a regional specialty. We plan to experiment to make them in Munich.

You can get to the hotel either way – but we laughed to see this sign.



Nap – needed by now. We piled all the blankets we could find on us and slept for a bit. When we got up, Anna popped up the street to ask for more blankets. They showed up soon, and more came while we were out to dinner. And, Alberto, one of the owners or friends or caretakers, came & turned on the water heater.

That night we had dinner at Chichibio. The antipasti spread was amazing. The best we’d had all trip.
Antipasta feast!



For our main meals we had lobster and fish, with one tiramisu for dessert. 2 bottles of the local white wine was a great compliment. While we were eating, it was pouring down rain. All the locals we talked with said it was such unusual weather. After we ended up in Jazz place. Lots of kids, and for something new, 4 girls tried to pick us up. What a riot! 2 am back to apt. Early up next day, to get to the airport.

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Weekend in Puglia

So 3 friends have been hatching a plan to go on a girls trip, quick getaway to Italy. Tried for Rome, but it’s too expensive already in the season. A cheap flight to Bari came up. (Italy looks like a boot, Bari is in the heel – in the Puglia region.) It’s south, on the Adriatic. Looked like a great beach weekend. I was privileged to be asked along.

Thursday morning we flew into Bari. We took the shuttlebus to train station in town. This was a spur of the moment trip and we decided to not reserve any hotel rooms in advance. So our first task was to get a place for the night. We walked a bit, put the suitcases down. We had been told to watch out in Bari, keep our purses close and not leave anything in the car. Judi & I stayed with the bags, Renu & Anna went to look for a hotel. Eventually, they found the Pensione. There just wasn’t much in the area. Renu is a bargainer, she asks everyone for a lower price. It’s great to watch her in action, I learned a lot. She got the one place to 60 Euro per room for 2 double rooms. Judi looked at other place (in the same building), and bargained us to 2 double rooms for 55 Euros each room. So we took that one. We had also agreed in advance that we’d spend the money on good meals, not on the rooms. Didn’t plan to stay in them much, just to sleep.

We settled in, then headed out to walk around Bari. We first got lunch – Anna & I had bean puree with greens, a local typical dish. Judi had a panini. The we started shopping. Of particular interest were high-heeled sneakers that Renu has been looking for, for a year.

Anna trying sandals



Judi peering over the case; they didn't replicate the window display inside the store



Renu trying them on



Renu bargained on the price and got a better deal. We saw lots of clothes stores, many unique to that area of Italy. Ended up at an Asian market on a wide boulevard, I bought a couple scarves. It was not warm – weirdly cold for that part of Italy that time of year. I had the worng clothes with me. Thank the Universe that I wore one pair of black pants there, I wore themt he whole trip.

We headed to the old town area, stopped for a coffee on the way. Sat out of the wind, at the side of the building and basked in the sunshine.

Renu, Judi, Anna enjoying coffee



Then we found St Nicholas’s church – he’s buried below the church. A Polish group was there, on a pilgrimage. We followed them down into the tomb, which was exquisite - beautiful lighting, low vaulted ceilings, decoration. At one point the group started a hymn and and the sound was delightful, echoing off the stone.




We walked through the rest of the old town, saw the local castle but didn’t go in.


We wandered back to hotel to get ready for dinner. Walked back to a restaurant that Anna’s friend had recommended, by the castle. We sat inside and were promptly welcomed into the community. We weren’t sure what to have, pasta as primi and fish as secondi for sure, but which one? We were eyeing the pasta dish that came to the table behind us. One guy, Giancarlo, said, “You can’t have it” as he waved it at us. No, no, we want to know what it is, we replied. Our waiter, Antonio, brought us one. And the 2 we ordered, and one other we were caught looking at, on a different table. Then came the fishes. The salads and contorni. The extra bottle of wine, that we didn’t order. The lemon ice. The limoncello and strawberry liquor. The roses. (There had been 4 different guys selling roses through the restaurant in the evening. On the last one, our waiter was going to buy the for us but we declined.) Trying to kiss me in the bathroom. The pie that we didn’t order was the last thing to come to the table. By now, everyone else had left and the staff was starting to come out to get their meal. We think we even saw the fisherman who caught our dinner.

We had asked Giancarlo if there were good nightspots to go to. He recommended a street to walk on, said we’d be fine with the 4 of us. Just go past the Swedish castle … Swedish, eh? Anna chimed in and said that in recent history the Swedes have a neutral reputation, but earlier on they romped through Europe and kicked everyone they could find. We headed that way. (Did we go to a bar that night?)

Our group is quite the international group. People kept asking where we were from. Renu is from India (then U.K.); Judi is Australian, Anna is Swedish, and I’m from the U.S. It made people wonder how we got together, and we’d explain about Munich and the International Women’s Club.

Judi & I shared a room that night, passed out quick. The room was big, clean, but poorly decorated. But we didn’t spend much time at all in it, and it was a great price.

Next morning, (Friday) we packed, put our cases down in the lobby and headed to breakfast. I went to a market to get yogurt, they had coffee and croissants. Back to shoe shops, Renu got another pair that she’d seen the day before and decided that she did want. Even higher-heeled sneakers. We ended up at the Hertz place, with no documentation, and confused the heck out of the poor guy. I started learning Judi’s version of Australian. Her ‘connector’ isn’t ‘um’, or ‘ya know’ or ‘em’ or ‘wossname’, it’s ‘unh unh unh’ She was going to be a driver, but didn’t have her license with her. So we said we’d take the car, load it up, come back with her license. She said to the guy , “So it will be quick, yeh? When we come back, you can just unh unh unh (making typing motions with her hands) and we’ll be done, right?” Meanwhile, Renu was shopping and got shorts next door. Finally we got the car. Headed out the wrong way but got ourselves oriented and got to the hotel. Picked up the bags, barely got them into the car (foreshadowing here) ran to the supermarket next to the hotel for water.

Headed back to the Hertz place to get Judi registered. Anna got us there, she was delighted at how relaxed everyone was. Share the road? No problem. Headed out of town, she joked that, in Germany, a red light is declarative; in Paris, informative; in Italy, decorative. We found our autostrada and sailed off towards the Outlets. On the way we had a fab lunch in the seaside town of Molfetta – Renu & Judi had the Risotto, with Gamberi, I had a crepe, Anna had the fish. Wonderful.

The Outlets were great shopping. They have very cool makeup in Italy, very cheap compared to Germany. Renu made me up – I am loving this girl stuff! I got some great shirts at the Zara Outlet.

Back in the car a couple hours later, we went back past Bari to Locorontodo (which does not mean ‘crazy circle’ in Italian!). We were trying to find a place recommended in the area tourist book and couldn’t find the street so we pulled into a gas station to ask. The one guy we asked didn’t speak much English, and he bustlked away to find us someone who did. A girl soon walked over, we explained where we were trying to get to and she gave us some directions that the guy objected to. So she stopped and said there was a better way. Her English was great – perfect grammar, but the way she said the directions were: “Go to the circus, and go HUP (pointing up the hill), and strange to the panorama.” Anna was cracking up, in tears. So we went past the circus (I was looking for a traffic circle, all there was was an intersection) We pulled into another gas station and got pointed back to where we’d come from. Took the turn, went HUP, and started seeing signs for Sotto le Cummerse, the place we’d targeted. Then we tried to pull into the pedestrian zone – asked someone if they spoke English, he gave the “one moment” finger, and ran to get someone, who arrived just as the police did. It was a very friendly policeman, who told us to continue and then park, and walk around to the place. Everyone here is so friendly!! Not many tourists at all, which may be why everyone remains friendly.

View from high point of Locorontondo



At Sotto le Cummerse, Renu & Judi bargained again, we got it for 100 per night for 2 nights. It was a 2-room apartment, with a kitchen and one double bed & 2 singles. Settle in, nap time, then we got ready for dinner. The agent for the apartment had told us where to go for din, and about a bar opening the next night.

The apartment on Via Avril



Looking up the “street”; we were in the pedestrian zone



Dinner was good. We again looked at someone else’s food and had the plate show up on our table! Afterwards, wandered into a café, then the local wine bar. All local crowd. Judi soon met everyone, and we all were talking to folks. Anna’s fluent French helped, I could follow those conversations. Renu met Graciella who owns a lingerie store there, and Pipi her cute French bulldog. Judi captivated everybody! She was asking after how old these folks were, someone said 25 and she said “My baby’s age.” No way can she have a baby that age – it spread through the bar like fire. Plus, Anna being a lawyer spread quickly too. Everyone seemed very comfortable with each other. Renu met the guy who reps Adidas for the area, he has a friend in London who owns 2 restaurants. At one point, he handed his mobile to Renu so she could talk to the guy. She’s got his name so we can go to his place when we’re in London.

Got a dinner res for the next night from this group And recommendation for the same bar opening.

We strolled back to the apartment, where the cistern/pump right outside the place was chuckling all night long. Judi was outraged at the noise for about 5 min and then we all passed out again.

Saturday, our plan was to go to Alberobello, to see some typical architecture. We walked around first to find breakfast.

Locorontondo Church Tower





Renu coordinates beautifully with this house



Judi and Renu check their pics



Doesn’t look like I’m too cold, but I am. In the sun, out of the wind, shorts were fine.




Judi taking in some sun



Anna enjoying the view


I have run out of time, but not out of narrative or pictures. More later.

Monday, June 12, 2006

Travel Pig

I have been a travel pig recently. Tonight I will finish the Barcelona trip report and post it; over the most recent weekend I was in Italy with 3 friends. What a riot! Will write that one up and post before I go away this coming weekend, to Paris. Love living here and being able to travel.

Anyhow, to finish Barcelona:
Thursday May 18th we took the bus up to Placa Catalunya (stopped at Uriquinoia, beautiful shops of clothing but all “to the trade”! Bummer.)

Stopped at La Bocaria, again, after, got more strawberries. Then we wandered the Barri Gothic which was mostly closed by then for afternoon siesta. Good idea, so we did it too.

We went to Del Born to the Teller de Tapas we’d located the night before, had a great dinner there and then went across to Bubo for dessert.





Took the train up to the University district, passed a club called Copa. We went in, it was packed and there was a great band. Lots of people dancing. Darkly handsome men, dancing. What a revelation – in this country men can dance, and do! Maybe I should learn Spanish instead of German. We continued on to La Paloma, but it was not really busy yet and Ewa didn’t like the sound of the music so we called it a night.

The weather had been great – some days started overcast, high fog, and the sun burned through by afternoon, with evenings clear and cooler. A couple times the evenings were cloudy with a few rain drops falling. Great temperature, warm days but not hot – yet.

Friday was tourist day. We started at Casa Batllo and then toured Padrera, 2 of Gaudi’s buildings. Fantastic. My pics just don’t encompass enough to make sense of them, I can remember what it really looked like from them so I’ll keep them but they aren’t good enough to post.


I finally got to the beach. Europeans are very different than Americans. Beautiful topless women everywhere, no big deal. I only stayed for an hour, then back to the apt to get cleaned up.

We met Gina & Tyler by Santa Maria del Mar cathedral, took a look inside the cathedral. It’s very open and Gina say’s it’s her favorite. Then we went to their favorite bar, El Xampanyet, for cava. Old, crowded, not too smoky and the cava was wonderful.



Ewa, Gina, Tyler, me




From there, we went to Txakolin, across from Estancio Franca, for tapas. What a beautiful dinner. They had quite a selection of cold tapas out, to grab. The hot plates come out of the kitchen one by one, and they walk them down the bar. If you want a piece, you grab it.

Gina contemplating what’s available.




Ewa, Gina and Tyler


We ate & ate, the food was superb. Had one bottle of wine, one glass of cider (to try, yeech – thin and acidy tasting, to me) and lots of tapas. Then we went off towards Del Born area again, stopped at a café & had Mojitos (what a mistake) and then to one of Tyler’s coworkers apartment, to a party. Late night again.

Saturday we were movin slow. We went back to Del Born for more shopping, had great pizza at Pizzeria Del Born, worked our way up to Placa Catalunya. Shopped there, then hit Bocaria for more strawberries. We had salad at home for dinner, watched a movie on the English cable. Then we went to Placa Espanya to watch the fountains. Quite a light show, with music. I was glad we got to see it, it’s the best water show I’ve seen. We made an early night of it.

Sunday was a clear, fine day. Starting to get hot. We spent the morning at Parc Guell, wandering.





Found a great café between it & the train, stopped for coffee. We ate again at the creperie under the fish sculpture (on the beach at Port Olympic, Gina had recommended it and the food was very good and inexpensive.) I got to the beach again this afternoon. Spent a bit too long in the sun, the sunburn has just now faded. But before it felt too bad, we wandered back to Del Born and Teller de Tapas for one more dinner.

Monday morning( May 22nd) we got up and finished packing. We went to the local supermarket for more water, as Christina and Andreas were due in that morning to take over the Nicholas-sitting duties. They showed up around 12:00, we gave them a whirlwind orientation and caught a cab at 1 to take us to the airport.

The time just flew. I expanded my list of things to see in Barcelona as I was seeing it. I will go back – after the heat of the summer fades a bit.

Tuesday, June 06, 2006

More Barcelona

Well, I don’t know where the time went, I was going to finish about Barcelona a while ago. I have not been lounging around eating bonbons, either. I have been playing travel agent, a bit. It takes a long time to make arrangements on line. I’m going back to Rochester in July, and doing that trip took about 5 hours – searching for the best fare, everything’s expensive. There were no frequent flyer awards to be had through United. I think they just block out the whole summer, 6 months before. So I’m flying Lufthansa Munich-Boston, and even the commuter flight Boston-Roch had no award travel possible. Sheesh. And, there’s a last minute trip to Italy with some girlfriends this weekend (yay! The sun shines there!) and the next weekend, Paris with my roommate. (Flatmate, they say here.)

I can’t believe I haven’t been home to California in over a year. It seems remote and fuzzy to me. I don’t even have many pictures with me, to remind myself. I am trying to take more pictures of people here, to add to the memorabilia. “More people, less stuff” may be a new motto.

I am gearing up to start looking for work, too. I like it here & want to stay, and will need my own residence permit for that. I have been looking at the web sites of American companies that I see here, to see if they have need for people in Munich. And if anyone else has a good idea, let me know!

Back to Barcelona.
Ewa and I got there on Sunday the 14th. We settled into the place, got to know Nicholas & his schedule – Theresa & Mark and baby Alex had left the day before, so they left the key with a colleague and lots of notes.

Walking up the street to the house


That evening, we went to visit Gina & Tyler, friends of mine from California who had moved to Barcelona for Tyler’s work about 18 months ago. I wish I had taken pictures of their apartment, it is absolutely beautiful. They made pizza with fresh peas, asparagus and green onions for dinner. It was delicious and I need to remember to write them and ask for the recipe!

We passed on Gaudi house on the way there & back, Casa Batllo. The façade is beautiful.


Monday the 15th we met a friend of a friend of Ewa’s, a Polish woman who’s been in Barcelona for 3 years now. She’s a PhD in Spanish and will get back to doing translating when her son is older. She met us near Sagrada Familia, I toured the church while she & Ewa chatted. Sagrada Familia was heaving with tourists. It is a monstrously large cathedral, another Gaudi. The inside is estimated to be finished in about 75 years. It’s all being financed by donation. Gaudi’s style is a twist on Art Noveau, I find it absolutely beautiful and compelling. I went up inside to the first level of the towers, after that the way was blocked and I needed to meet Ewa again, so I headed back down. Someday I’d like to get there very early in the morning & get all the way up to the top.

We walked down to the port, sat enjoying the sunshine.
Ewa in sunshine at the port.



Abe Lincoln graffiti on the way out of the park. Random and wonderfully weird to see.



Tuesday morning we went to the local supermarket first – it had been closed Monday for inventory, and we really needed food for breakfast & water. The water there is drinkable, but tastes bad. It’s heavily processed. We then tried to get into the Picasso museum, but the lines were too long, and we were meeting Marcello, a friend of a friend that afternoon. So we shopped a bit – there are great boutiques with unique clothing & shoes all over the place there. (Most suited to the local climate. I’m glad I resisted the pretty, light, fluttery stuff because I can’t wear it in Munich, it’s too cold!)
Street in Del Born area



Ewa by a very cool door



On the way to our meeting point, we finally got to La Bocaria, the well-known open air market. Beautiful produce, meats, fish. Strawberries for 99 eurocents a kilo.







We met Marcello at Café Zurich in Placa Catalunya, he then toured us around the University district and told us about clubs to go to in the evening. Sadly, on the way home, Ewa’s husband called to tell her that her cat died. That was a shock.

Wednesday the 17th we started earlier and got into the Picasso museum. This features much of his early work, through his Blue period and into Cubism. I like exhibits like that as it’s great to see the artist’s progression over their working life. Afterwards we caught the funicular to Montjuic, a very large park that is the legacy of the 1992 Olympics; many of the facilities were built there. It’s a hill to the west of city center.


It also contains Poble Espanyol, a large complex with buildings representing architecture from all over Spain, from the 1929 Universal Exposition. Inside the buildings are artisan shops.



We walked in, and found a café. And Sangria. The afternoon got very silly after that, what fun!

Ewa at the café


We stopped at a rooftop restaurant to get coffee. That Sangria went down so easily, and everything was funny now.




As we were camping it up for these shots, Ewa noticed that the bartender was on break having coffee and mugging too. We laughed, went back to our conversation. On the way out, we stopped to take some pics over the rooftops and he reappeared to play along some more.







After the afternoon dog walk, we set out for La Paloma, a club Marcello had recommended. He thought they had dinner there on Wednesday nights, along with dancing. We got there at 9:30 and it was closed. So we walked back to las Ramblas, stopped in a tapas place near La Bocaria and ate dinner while the crowd standing on the sidewalk next door, peering at the TV, roared its support for Barcelona, who beat Arsenal that night for the European Championship. What pandemonium ensued! We had been warned to avoid Placa Catalunya in case of a win, and we were very near there. Las Ramblas filled with celebrants, dancing, singing, setting off M80s and other strings of fireworks.

Barca wins!







We hung out there until 11:30 or so, then walked against the crowd and got to the Del Born area again. Found the tapas place we’d really preferred to have eaten at, called Teller de Tapas, and a place called Bugo that does the most beautifully created desserts. Ewa had remembered them from her visit to Barca in March. We ducked into an Irish pub (they’re all over Europe, I think they’re spawning) had a drink and met Pete, a maritime engineer on one of the yachts in port. Had a lively discussion about Linksys routers and their problems, Pete’s learning networking by doing. The owner of the yacht has an ISP business in London, so the ship has all the latest networking gear. Sounds like it gets interfered with, and hangs, regularly. When we left the bar, the subway had closed so we ended up walking back home. It was a long walk. And the entire time, people were walking past chanting the Barcelona cheers, driving honking with flags hanging out of the cars, carrying on. All night long, apparently. Our neighborhood was quieter.