In Which I Travel Thousands of Miles

I apologize profusely for the lack of posts over the past week or so. It's not that I haven't had anything to write about; in fact, I have a multitude of stories to tell. The fact is that I have been busy to an extreme since I got home, and have not yet had a real opportunity to sit down and write my heart out.

I have a good amount to say about Italy (and tons of pictures to share; photo website in progress), but the stories on the home front have been building up as well, and I'd better start getting them all down in bytes.

First of all I'll expound on our stay in Amsterdam. We flew into the city only ten minutes late, but the connecting flight to Boston had left early, and was already in the air. We headed to the transfer desk and waited while they sorted out our problem. The people working for the airline were all very friendly (at least the ones we met), and that helped some. Nevertheless, I was tired and wanted to get home.

The airline probably lost money on us. We paid $382 apiece for round trip tickets, but since we missed our flight because of their mistake, they gave us two free rooms at a 4-star hotel near the beach (the picture with the lighthouse and the nighttime picture are from the balcony of one of the rooms; the sunset picture was taken by Ben on a nearby beach), $60 each off future ticket purchases, phone cards for calling home, food vouchers for the airport, and - here's the biggest plus - upgrade to business class. And believe me when I say that business class is NICE! Hot moist towels at the beginning and end of the trip, gourmet meals, fully reclining seats, travel kits, nicer headphones . . . aaaaahh. I looked up how much it would cost to purchase those tickets today, and the cheapest possible price is two thouuuuuuusand dollars!!!! And that's per person. In a way, we earned $5000 dollars and spent it all at once on luxuries.





My first major story from after I got home took place Friday night. After Sabbath meeting and a brief Sabbath treat over here, Ben and I set out for Fairwood. His mother was there for the weekend, and he went home with her the following Sunday, I believe. I decided to take the "back way" (136 to 101 instead of 101 the whole way) as it's shorter and sometimes faster. As we were zipping along (with low beams on because we had just passed another car) about 45 mph, I suddenly saw a few legs in front of me. I slowed to a careful stop and pulled over to the side. Ben pulled our "Caution" sign out of the trunk and ran back to warn other drivers of potential danger, and I pulled out my camera and flashlight to see what beast had the audacity to stand in the middle of a state road.

And what a beast it was! I raised the flashlight higher and higher, until finally the beam rested on the head of. . . .a giraffe!! You can imagine my shock! I whipped out my camera, Ben whipped out his, and we both began to photograph as though there would be no tomorrow! We found out later that it had escaped from the world-famous Greenfield and Peterborough Magnificent Animal Exhibition. What? Never heard of it? Then I guess you're not as gullible as I hoped, but dared not to expect.

No, what I saw was no giraffe. It was a hoofed mammal of relatively diminutive stature, boasting a height of only, oh, seven or eight feet. It was a moose, in fact. I never saw above its chest, although, as previously mentioned, I didn't have my high beams on. Ben said afterward he hadn't see any antlers though, so I didn't miss anything spectacular.

Instead, I missed something large and deadly. (Oooh, I love that line!) I swerved hard to the left, swerved hard to the right, and never saw the deer animal (hahahahaha!) again. It all happened very quickly, and my reaction time felt like it was well under the 3/4 second average reaction time that I learned about in driver's ed. It might have been just my imagination, or it might have been God. Take your pick.

To make a great story better, I saw eight deer that night afterward: three on Rte. 202 only a few minutes after the moose, and the remaining five on Chestnut Hill Road. I saw all of those animals well in advance and had nothing like a close call.

The weather here has been absolutely lovely the past couple days! The temperature right now, 11 pm, is warmer than the average high for days around this time of year! It definitely feels like May, and I'm not complaining.

We've been enjoying a nearly unprecedented amount of wildlife in the area. We have a beaver living in our pond once again, the last time being about six or seven years ago. We've had several mink sightings, and this morning we saw a pair of wood ducks swimming around in the pond. I don't think I had ever even seen any before! We also have the usual mallards, chickadees, nuthatches, frogs, peepers, etc., but no mosquitoes yet, thank goodness!

Stranded

We are in Amsterdam. We have been for nearly 24 hours. Why? Because our first flight landed late and the second flight took off early. We spent the night in a four-star hotel for free, with free dinner and breakfast, and now we're about to head home. I would write more, but the battery of the laptop is quickly dying, and I can't plug it in. We'll be back in the USA in about 12 hours.

Rome

More from Italy

While we were still in Venice, we went on a tour of the surrounding islands: Murano, Burano, and Torcello. Once again, Ben and I both took tons of pictures. I decided I would just post these pictures of Torcello, since that is probably were I had the best time in our entire stay in Venice.

The tower in the background of the first picture was open to the public, with an entry fee of about €3 per person. Ben and I decided to climb up while Daddy stayed below. We had not much time before the tour boat left, so we ran all the way up. This was made easier by the fact that no one else was in the tower, and instead of stairs, there were ramps on each side of the tower.

We arrived at the top out of breath, took pictures of the surrounding countryside, and ran back down. THAT was the fun part. By the time we were halfway down we had mastered the technique: halfway down the ramp, we would jump and twist our bodies sideways in midair so that we would land facing in the right direction and be able to keep running without stopping. It was so much fun, and we were hardly tired at the bottom.

Well, it's a bit late, and once again we have to leave our hotel to use the internet. Ben and Daddy are waiting to head back. (We're in Rome now, by the way.) TTFN!

From the Eternal City

We are now in Rome! We have been to Venice, Florence, Elba, and Pisa, and we are ahead of schedule. We have 300+ pictures per city, and I will try to put many of them into online albums when we get home. Unfortunatlely, only the first hotel we stayed in actually had wireless internet, and therefore we have been mostly using internet cafés for our web access. This makes it difficult to post pictures, and I have only managed to do it once (by using a USB thumb drive and taking it to the café).

One interesting thing about the culture here is that all the Italians use the superlative much more often than Americans. This is especially true in driving directions: "Go always straight, turn left at the light, and go always straight again. The building is always on the right, always on the right."

The weather has been pretty good. It was cloudy most of the time for the first few days, but it was never cold. Now, in Rome it is always hot, always hot. Sempre caldo. It is at least 75°F by my estimate. It is perfect for sitting in the shade, but it is a bit warm for walking through the sunny streets. I think I will be glad to go home and find it still spring.

Arrivederci, amici!