Jason and Carole’s trip to Florence and Pisa

Florence is proving to be one of those places that I seem to enjoy more each time I visit. Despite being full of tourists it manages to retain an amazing charm with so much history/culture while still feeling like a place where people actually live and work. Even though it was my third trip, so much still felt new. Not too surprising I guess given all of the sights it has to offer. Just wandering the streets a little bit away from the centre could provide a trip in and of itself. It was the first time my Mom had been so we visited the two major museums, and much like visiting the Met in NYC or Louvre in Paris, the Uffizi has such an overwhelming collection it is impossible to even begin to take it all in during a visit.

Add all of the great Italian food and wine, which we sampled in abundance, to the museums, churches and architecture and I have to put Florence near the top of my list of must see European cities. I will admit it is tough for me to pass judgement on great Italian cities having not yet been to Rome or Venice. However, I find it hard to imagine either could match Florence’s for its ability manage the crush of tourists without losing any of its quaintness and that great relaxed feel that makes visiting Italy so wonderful. I am eagerly awaiting my trip back with Jess in early July!

Oh yeah, we also visited Pisa, which somewhat to my surprise is well worth at least a day on any trip to the region as the city itself deserves exploring beyond just popping in to see the tower and amazing Duomo.

- Jason

A Northern Voyage

Over Memorial Day weekend (here, the 'second May bank holiday'), we went to Tallinn, Estonia and Helsinki, Finland.  I completely acknowledge that this must make it seem like we've reached the end of normal things to do, but Estonia is not nearly as off the beaten path as it sounds.  In fact, Tallinn has risen to glory as a popular 'stag do' (bachelor party) destination in recent years, probably because it's relatively cheap compared to other European capitals, and it's easy to get to/from/around.


We spent most of our late May weekend bundled up against the chilly early-Spring weather, wandering the Tallinn old town and out off the tourist track into a pretty little park that also housed the KUMU, the modern art museum, where we spent a few hours.  We enjoyed some of the local brew and made 'friends' with one very drunk Finnish man, who wanted to know that we were welcome to his house if we ever found ourselves 2 hours north of Helsinki.

View of Tallinn from Oleviste church tower

Creepy room at the KUMU

We spent 2 days & 3 nights in Tallinn before taking a ferry - actually a retrofitted cruise ship that was pretty retro-feeling itself - to Helsinki for a one day / one night visit.  We enjoyed some local grub at the seaport before heading out to Suomenlinna island, an important part of Finland's defense against Russia.

On Suomenlinna Island

See the rest of our pictures here!

A weekend in Dublin

We haven't really been living up to our 'World Wide' moniker lately, with in the first four months of the year having traveled to Tunisia in January (okay that was pretty cool) and then back home to the States in April. In an effort to make up for the dearth of travel lately, we've got some trips lined up for the coming months - some officially scheduled, some scheduled only in our heads.

To kick it off, we took a quick jaunt to Dublin the weekend before last - arriving late Friday and leaving mid-day Sunday. We had been once before, which was nice because it meant we already had our bearings and didn't need to do the first-time tourist stuff. It was a decent enough weekend - sunny but chilly - which was better than it had been in London for the weeks leading up to it (mainly cloudy and chilly). We headed out to the Kilmainham Jail and took the tour there. Interesting mix of Dublin history - especially as the jail played a prominent role during both the potato famine & the 1916 uprising - and jail theory, the latter of which we are becoming knowledgeable in given our recent visit to the Eastern State Pen too.

Afterwards we wandered around looking for a cafe that either doesn't exist anymore or we had bad directions to, and in doing so passed by Trinity College green where a cricket match was on. So we pulled up a patch of grass and took in the game. This was the first time I've watched live cricket, and I have to say I didn't think the players were very good.

In the evenings we drank lots of Guinness (obv.) and tried to seek out some smaller, more local haunts. We had some luck and enjoyed time with the Dubliners - or, at the very least, near them. We don't have many pictures from this trip - just from the jail and the cricket match - but have a look, the link's at the right.

USA! USA!

(Title in homage of upcoming World Cup events!!!!!)

I've been delaying writing this post, though I'm honestly not sure why. I think I was looking for something profound to say about our 11 days in Philly / New York at beginning of April, but when it comes down to it, it was simply a fantastic trip that felt about twice as long as it actually was (and when does that happen?!). It might have been that it was in the mid-70s and sunny the entire time, or it could have been the fact that we got to see bunches of dear friends and even some dear family too. Probably a combination.

We started with 4 days in Philly, where we stayed at a B&B a couple blocks down from Greg & Kaity's place (they're on Rittenhouse Square), which was also one door down from Jason's old place on Pine. Who says you can't go back? We spent our days wandering down to the waterfront and up to Penn, hitting some old haunts like Mad Mex & Roosevelts, and even grabbing a New Deck Chicken Sandwich with Geoff & Shanna and their 3 frighteningly clever kids and taking a wander up Locust Walk to see what's changed... and what hasn't. The mom & dad came into town for the Easter weekend, which we spent eating cheesesteaks, perusing the Italian Market, and checking out the Eastern State Penitentiary. Greg & Kaity made a delicious Easter eve dinner and we all went to brunch at Parc before going our separate ways.

On Sunday we took the Amtrak up to NYC. Monica & Hayle were gracious enough to let us crash in their spare room in their northern-facing Chelsea apartment for the entire week. Heck, they even left us the place to ourselves when they jetted off to Mexico on Wednesday morning! We did work at our respective offices during the week, but made the most of all our evenings. We enjoyed catching up over drinks & dinners out and were treated to a couple dinners in (a special thanks to Ed for hosting his last dinner party in his now former apartment while we were in town - themed 'Upscale Trailer Park', and to pregnant Lisa for putting together a delicious meal while Hal stood by continuously opening new bottles of wine for the rest of us).

Finally on Saturday, we took a bus out to Brian & Jamie's in New Jersey for the first (annual??) Penn '00 and Friends mini-reunion. This was great because we made our entire mom & baby tour in one stop. It was a very chill event, with yummy burgers & dogs, one hotly contested poker game, and a good time catching up with old friends & seeing their little ones getting bigger and bigger. This happens to be the 10-year reunion year for most of us who were there, but oddly enough no one mentioned sitting in the rain on Franklin Field, listening to an incomprehensible Irish poet give our commencement address, so I'm doing it here. Memorable in its own right.

And THAT, ladies and gentlemen, wraps up my account of our trip home. We left wishing for more time and realising that we really meant it when we told people we plan to be back for good in about a year's time. The reality check, though, is remembering it's not always 75 & sunny, and we're not always going to be a novelty to have around.