A Girl in the Curl

I have to stop by and visit every time I’m in Europe.

It’s really tough, sitting in the piazza, having espressi, and basking in all this, but I do it.

the acoustics are demonstrated by the tour guide.
He sang one note, then another, then another, and together, they formed a chord that swirled around and around.

it was cool.

The omnipresent SPQR is translated by locals as “Sono porchi questi romani!” (these romans are pigs) in reference to the dirty city.

in reality, Romans are warm and full of life. Once you get used to the dialect!

In Roma, they don’t use the italian “il” for “the” but pronounce everything “Er”

so, it’s Er colisseo, not Il Colisseo.

and, while in Tuscany the OH! that is uttered to gather one’s attention, in Rome it’s AHH-OH!

Very Roman.

my favorite Michaelangelos are here.

In the winter, there is hardly anyone there when they extend the hours.

My friend and I were the only two people in the whole academy, with the David all to ourselves. It was amazing.

It was raining and dark out, and inside, it was marvelous.

just about.
Hard to think of better times.

I’m going to go back and live here for at least 3 years next time.

I dunno when it started, but it’s there.

I’ve been all over the world, and I’ve only seen one or two cities that I could live in, comfortably, though nothing that I was passionate about as I am about San Fran.

Plus, we have Easter Sunday BYOBW (bring your own big wheel) rides down Lombard street. That’s the crookedest street in the world for those that don’t know.

I can’t think of much cooler than that. Except maybe for Frank Chu…that’s my kook.

:D

one of my favorite professors, offering to write me a letter of recommendation to HER alma mater, here in the bay area! LOL

and talk that UCSF was trying to lure her back to San Fran.

‘Cause it’s the best place on earth. That’s why.

When I was living in Italy, I would catch the overnight train to Munich or Vienna and then take another train to Prague.

I loved it, but it was a bit creapy, in the “recently eastern block, you should be careful” sort of way.

Prasky Hrad is beautiful, and the room I was renting was directly on the other side of it from town, so I got to walk thru the castle every day, a couple times/day.

In the year+ I was in EU, I noticed the changes in Prague from one month to the next, so I have no idea how much it’s “westernized” by now.

It’s a beautiful, old place with lots of “new” influx.
(I’ll have to post some of the places I went once I get back home and can look at my souvenirs/sketchbook/journals. I remember one jazz club that was phenomenal the first time I went, and then the next two times were sorta “meh”)

I seem to always be here for the year-end holidays. One year, it was thanksgiving, and the following year it was New Years. That was one of the scariest new years I’ve ever spent, because the crowd was full of hooligans, and they were throwing large fireworks into to the very big crowds, and large empty bottles of champagne into the air over a crowd—luckily, no one was hurt, but it made us very paranoid. At one point, we found the steps of the cathedral, with our backs to the door to be the safest place. That’s where the people with babies in strollers had congregated.

Good and bad in Prague, just be careful if you go. I have friends that had a run in with what they thouht were Russian Mafia. LOL.