Having Some Fun, Finally

J has been crazy busy at work lately, so we haven't really had much time to spend together and enjoy all the things that London offers during the holiday season.

We managed to squeeze in a ballet, Sleeping Beauty, with one of his work colleagues.

It was truly the best ballet I've ever seen. The choreographer, Matthew Bourne, is pretty well-reknowned and for good cause. It was a modern take on the traditional fairy tale, and I was more than a bit surprised when fairy-vampires and hoodlums in hoodies made an appearance, but it was a fabulous update. The dancers were amazing, and I definitely want to see the choreographer's other production, Swan Lake.

Things at work finally slowed down for J during the weekend, and he decided to humour me in getting up early on Sunday morning to head to Greenwich Park for a 10k Santa Run. It wasn't that cold, but the the wind was pretty strong. I was already dressed pretty warmly (3 pairs of gloves), but I thought that putting on the Santa outfit would be additional protection from the wind.

Unfortunately, it was a bit too big.

I met up with my cousin for a quick meet and greet before we were off.

I don't know what was up with the course since it was pretty disorganised, but it was either too short or I run much faster when I'm surrounded by twenty thousand Santas.

In any case, J was near frozen while waiting for me so we made a quick getaway so I could shower before we hit up Apollo Theatre to watch Twelfth Night, my all-time favourite Shakespeare play.

It was so well-done and hilarious! J and I both agreed that it was the best play we had ever seen, and we were near about rolling on the floor during the whole thing. I would label it a definite don't-miss. Mark Rylance, the guy who played Olivia, was amazing, and I'm a big, big fan. We're already planning on buying tickets to see Richard III to watch him again.

We had some time to kill before our dinner reservations so we wandered around Regent's Street and Carnaby to check out their Xmas decorations.

We ended the night with a veritable feast of Korean food at Asadal and rehashed the Santa run with  my cousin and her boyfriend. A perfect end to a perfect day!

P.S. Excuse the British spelling - it's spellcheck, not me.
P.P.S. And yes, I did cut my hair again. I'm easing J onto the whole short hair thing. ;)

Sketchy Babies

An American friend of mine recently announced her pregnancy, and I think it's much more exciting than Kate Middleton's baby bump. Unfortunately, she and her husband are moving back to the US at the end of the year, so we had a baby shower afternoon tea at Sketch Parlour this past weekend.

Although the tea was a bit expensive (£34 per person), the setting was interesting and the food was delicious! All of the tea things were an eclectic mix of styles and sizes, and we got both savoury and sweet things to nibble on with our tea. And the toilets are inexplicable - I can't explain, you just have to see it for yourself.



But best of all, we got to buy super cute baby things and watch her open her gifts! There is close to ten million baby clothes shops on my high street, and my favourite is The Little White Company. I swear if they had this in a larger size, J would come home to find me relaxing on the couch in this outfit.



It was a really fun time and three hours flew by as we chatted about all things baby.



And yes, I cut and colored my hair. But it's already different by now. My project at work is on hiatus at the moment, so I decided it's a fun time to "experiment" on a nearly weekly basis. ;)

Ciao, Roma!

We had no particular plan for our last day in Rome. We felt like we had hit most of the "must-sees" of the city, and I had the idea that we could wander around Trastevere, a part of Rome that wasn't quite as touristy as the other bits.

With the encouragement of our concierge, we hopped into a taxi and got out in front of Santa Maria, a basilica focused on the Virgin Mary and built in the 12th century.

It's a bit off the beaten path so we got to enjoy our visit peacefully without the usual crowds we had encountered elsewhere in Rome.

I got a crick in my neck from looking up the entire time - the ceilings were beautiful.

And there is a stunning mosaic showing the coronation of the Virgin Mary.

Once we left the church, we wandered the streets and watched local life unfold.

I couldn't get over how empty the streets were of other tourists! This was the first time I encountered shopkeepers that couldn't speak English, but luckily, I spoke a bit of Spanish, they spoke a bit of Spanish and so we managed to make it work.

It wasn't long before we popped into yet another church, the Santa Maria della Scala. The interior was filled with crystal chandeliers, and we found ourselves completely alone in the church.

I think we were both getting a bit of church fatigue, so J and I and crossed the Tiber on the Ponte Sisto and walked until we hit Campo de' Fiori, a lively market selling all things edible.

I was flummoxed by all the different kinds of pasta that were available!

We had also noticed how common zucchini (courgette) flowers were on Roman menus.

We didn't buy anything, but there were a few things I wished I could take home with me...

Much too quickly, it became time for us to head back to the hotel and pick up our luggage and go to the airport. Our flight was delayed by several hours because of the dense fog in London. Home, sweet home.

Visiting 2nd Century A.D.

We planned on tackling the Colosseum and Palatine Hill and the Forum on Sunday, but we decided to check out the Pantheon first on our way there.

Since it was Sunday, we were part of the growing crowd waiting outside for services to end so that we could check out the interior. Yup, it's still a working church! I thought the exterior itself was pretty nice...

We had some time to kill so we roamed the nearby streets and did some souvenir shopping at a fab paper shop nearby, Il Papiro, where all the paper is handmade and hand-painted!

We were eventually admitted into the church, and we got the chance to see the largest unsupported dome in the world. It was pretty damn cool, especially since I took an architecture class in college and never imagined that I'd be seeing the Pantheon in person someday. It's unbelievable that it's been standing since the 2nd century A.D.!

Afterwards, we walked to Piazza Navona to check out Bernini's famous fountains. Three of them reside in the piazza. There's the Fontana del Moro, and the Neptune Fountain at the north end.

The most famous is the Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi, which resides in the center of the piazza and represents the four great rivers known at the time.

Other than the fountains, there's loads of artists in the piazza all plying their trade, which reminded me a lot of Paris.

We were pretty tired from all the gawking we had done thus far and the day's heat was getting to us so we decided to break for lunch at Il Focaccio nearby. We were pretty hungry by then and the waitress had to convince us that we didn't need to order a pasta entree on top of the two pizzas we had already ordered.

A Roman friend had recommended the restaurant to us, and the pizzas were absolutely amazing and really reasonably priced! We were pretty sure that it was going to be good when we sat down since we were surrounded by obvious locals i.e. a flock of priests dressed in their church duds.

We still had a bit of room so we wandered down Vicolo Savelli to a small family-run pastry shop called La Deliziosa, where we bought the most delicious chocolate eclair we had ever tasted. The people who ran the shop were so charming and incredibly nice. We definitely got some jealous looks while we dug into our eclair.

Fed and watered, we decided that we were ready to tackle the Colosseum.

First, we had to fight the massive crowds that had turned out for the local Sports Day, but we could see the Colosseum from afar and headed in the general direction, and we could gauge how close we were by the many "gladiators" began to appear.

We managed to get there late enough to avoid most of the large tourist groups, but we still had to queue up for tickets in the internal corridors to go inside the Colosseum.

The inside was definitely worth waiting for!

We could see where the gladiators' entrance was and the complicated underbelly of the arena where the animals were kept before they popped out of the wooden floor for their dramatic entrance.

As gruesome as its history is, the stadium is pretty freaking impressive. And of course, I couldn't resist the chance to pose as a victorious gladiator. J just egged me on by reciting lines from the movie Gladiator - "You, who are about to fight, we salute you!"

After I was done acting the fool, we crossed the street to head over to Palatine Hill and the Forum.

Let me just say, Palatine Hill is sprawling and the paths are more like trails. J and I negotiated our way in our street shoes, but hiking boots probably would've been more appropriate. It was also a good thing that we visited rather late in the afternoon as there is no cover from the heat.

Palatine Hill seemed more like a huge park with a ton of ruins than like an archaeological site. It used to be where all the politicians and wealthy lived, kind of like the Beverly Hills of back-in-the-day. We saw the house of Augustus and Livia, which were pretty nondescript, and the Stadium (garden? racetrack? no one knows).

 

We moved on to the Forum, where we were pretty much surrounded by ruins. They weren't roped off or anything so you could pretty much touch them if you wanted to.

My favorite was the House of the Vestal Virgins. The virgins were charged with keeping alight the flame of Vesta, the goddess of the hearth. The virgins were always noblewoman, and they served for 30 years. If they ever lost their virginity during this time, they were buried alive. Talk about hard-core...

We were both pretty worn out by then, physically and mentally, and I was being eaten alive by mosquitoes, so we were pretty happy to beat a retreat back to the hotel as the sun went down. We were so tired and our feet were sore so we made the very wise decision to order room service and call it a night.

Vatican City

Saturday morning, we stuffed ourselves full of delicious pancakes and headed out to Vatican City to see St Peter's and the Vatican Museum.

Vatican City is only 3.7 km away from our hotel and the weather was so lovely that we decided to walk. We even managed to catch a view of the Palace of Justice and Castel Sant'Angelo along the way. I kept waiting to encounter the scary Roman drivers, but it wasn't that bad at all, but then nothing seems that bad after walking around Kathmandu. No cows in the middle of the road, no problem!

Our first view of Piazza San Pietro was stunning, and we had a ton of time to enjoy it and pose for pics as we queued up for quite some time to go through security to enter the church.

It was really hot in the open sun, and we were more than glad to enter the cool church.

We got to see some amazing sculptures, including the Pieta by Michaelangelo...

And the keys to heaven...

And the Baldacchino by Bernini was more than impressive...

But it was the architecture of the church that really blew me away.

We had plenty of time to walk around with our mouths hanging open in awe before we had to walk over to the Vatican Museums for our timed entry. During the walk, I bought a gelato from one of the many food trucks and had a good giggle at the uniforms of the Swiss Guards. I mean, seriously?! No wonder he looks so angry-sad.

J was pretty stoked about the Vatican Museums and probably more than a little relieved to get out of the day's heat.

I really enjoyed the museum, and some of my favourites included the mosaic floor in the animals room.

The ceilings were also amazing in pretty much all of the rooms.

And the most spirally staircase I've come across yet was pretty fun.

But the mother of them all and the main reason lots of people visit the Vatican Museum is the Sistine Chapel. It's still a working chapel and the place where the cardinals get together to vote for a new pope, so no pictures or talking is allowed. J and I gawked silently at the ceiling and the walls, and the frescoes were a wonderful way of seeing the Bible come to life.

I didn't believe it when people told me that Vatican City would take an entire day, but it really did. We walked slowly back to our hotel to enjoy a dinner of meatballs and cassata and cannoli and a breadbasket that needed to be replenished three times before hitting the hay. Viva Roma!