Catching up...

Is it really almost August? Holy hell. Where has the summer gone? It's not my fault that I don't really *believe* that it's August though, since it's been in the upper 50s/lower to mid 60s for the last two weeks or so here in our little part of France. We've been super busy here at Chez Duggan between recovering from my Tour de Italie with Ang, Bastille Day celebrations, returning to my Bikram yoga practice in Geneva (which "commuting" wise is a like having a full-time job all in and of itself!), Dan's upcoming trip to the states and my parent's first visit to Europe right around the corner (more on that later). I've also gone on a major organizational and cleaning kick that has made my OCD side very happy. Who knows, maybe one of these days I'll actually get around to showing you the work we've done with the house now that we're feeling a little more settled in.


I know I've got a ton of pictures to update all of you on, especially since I never finished posting pictures from Dan and mine's Italian adventure back in April...there's even a moo-ing milk dispenser video that I've been trying to upload for ages now, so keep an eye out for that. But for now, I'll just say Happy Friday and leave you with a few pictures from my recent trip to Florence, with more of a hodge podge of travel pictures to come...



[Train goodies...]


We traveled from France, through Switzerland, and then into Italy. Our train to Milano however, (where were we connecting for a train to Florence), was one hour late, which meant that we, along with pretty much everyone else on our retard train, were scrambling to squeeze our way onto a train of any sort that was going towards our destination...



[Po-po Italiano...]


...since so many people had missed their connecting trains, we were forced to find a seat on the floor of the vestibule of the train...yep, right by the luggage racks and the bathroom. At least it's only about an hour and 45 minutes by train from Milano to Florence. I guess I can't complain after hearing some of Dan's travel stories about having to fit his 6 foot 3 frame in the luggage rack on an overnight train down to Marseilles when there were no seats available...


[Ang is happy.]

About 8 1/2 hours after having left France, and exhausted and a little high from train fumes, we finally arrived in Florence.


[I heart street markets.]

We dropped our bags off at the hotel, and literally ran outside for food. All we wanted was food. And air conditioning. Who knew we could have both?! Us - at least until the next morning at breakfast...but I digress. Our hotel was in the San Lorenzo district, which happens to host an awesome street market.



[Taking down of the San Lorenzo street market...]

We got to Florence in the early evening, so we'd have to wait to start our street market haggling until the following day...


After dinner we decided to do a little exploring, and found that the Duomo, Cathedral and Bapistry were all right around the corner from our hotel...


[Stripes.]





[The graffitti in Pisa was far more impressive...]


We ended the night in front of the Bapistry, with gelato, where a very talented woman was singing opera as the sun set. Her voice was amazing. After she finished singing "Ave Maria" there were a few tears in the crowd and some "bravos!" The whole scene was so surreal to me: she showed up in front of the bapistry, put her purple purse down, put down a hat down for people to put change into, sang for about 20 or 30 minutes, then packed up and left. I'll try to get that video up today, though I know it won't do her voice or performance justice.

[Soapbox moment alert] And yes, I definitely contributed to that hat with a little change myself - I really appreciate good musical street performances, and I can't stand when people take pictures or video without at least contributing to their plight with a late spare change. Long live artists with talent! [End soapbox moment alert.]



Next up: More of Honey and Ang's Excellent Italian Adventure...

A la prochain friends...