The Biggest Goose in the World

Howdy folks,
I had hoped that we would have Internet by the time I wrote this blog, but alas our modem has not yet arrived. So I'm writing yet another entry on my phone; perhaps the next blog will be written luxuriously on my lap top.
Parks or "Parchi"
The weather was fairly nice this weekend, so we took a long walk to a park near Piazza Dante. This park has some neat statues, cute ducks, and a giant goose made out of wicker!
Here's a statue of the typical family in Trento:




The typical family in Trentino (as of 2007) has a father who is 44, a mother who is 38, a daughter that is 12, and a son that is 6. According to my analysis of this statue, they also have a dog that looks suspiciously like a pig.

Here's a monument to Francesco Chini:




He was a missionary and explorer who was born in Trento.
Here are the aforementioned cute ducks:








And here is the biggest goose (l'oca) in the world!!




That's right people, I live near the biggest goose in the world. Top that. It reminds me of Nicolas Cage's wonderful role in The Wicker Man remake.
Next to the park, on top of the Doss Trento hill, you can see a monument to Cesare Battisti:




Battisti was a member of a movement that fought for Trento to become part of Italy, back when Trento was still part of Austria-Hungary. Austria sentenced him to death for treason and he was hanged in the courtyard of Castello del Buonconsiglio.
In the spring, when the weather improves, we plan to visit the Battisti monument.
Upcoming Trips
Our next door neighbors are the friendliest people I've ever met. Last weekend they invited us over for coffee/sweets and we practiced our Italian and they practiced their English. They also invited us to go on a day trip with them to Venice in February! So it looks like we'll get to scope out Venezia for the day. Exciting!
In February, we're also going to Verona for the Verona in Love Festival. It's one of my birthday presents from Tyson! I'm a huge Shakespeare fan, so I can't wait to see the house of Juliet, along with everything else Verona has to offer.
Stay Permit or "Permesso di soggiorno"
In order to stay in Trento, we have to apply for a stay permit, which involves quite a bit of paperwork. Luckily, Tyson's employer streamlined this process for us. They filled out much of the paperwork. Ty already has his permit and I have my appointment on Wednesday. Originally, I had planned to give details on this process so that people moving here would be less confused. However, I didn't realize much of it would be taken care of for us. So I can't help there, unfortunately.
On Being Polite in Italy
I found this picture and thought it was funny:




So, politeness gets you everywhere. Coffee truly is that cheap here, usually around 1 euro.
On Bruschetta
Bruschetta, how I love thee. I first discovered bruschetta because of my dad, who also loves it. I was visiting and trying to decide between two rival colleges for undergrad and my dad took me out for lunch near campus. This place just happened to have the best bruschetta of all time. So did I choose the college that had the best bruschetta? No, but Tyson may have influenced my decision because he was attending the other college. :)
Anyway, I've yet to have any bruschetta here, but I definitely will. I already attempted a homemade version here:




It was so good, but I burnt the bread because I wasn't used to a convection oven. Mission: find awesome bruschetta soon.
Addio, amici!

Christmas in London

For Christmas this year, we decided to go to London! We chose London because we knew it'd be nice to hear English again and we figured the muse of many of Charles Dickens' stories might know a thing or two about Christmas.

The Pubs
No visit to England is complete without a visit to a traditional pub.
The first pub we tried was called The Blackbird Pub.





It was festive and warm inside and their ales were very good, though a bit hoppy for my tastes.
I ordered the bangers and mash:



While Tyson ordered the fish and chips.



They were both "lovely jubbly" or great, as we say in the U.S.

While we were there's I also got to try Pimm's, both the winter and the summer types. Winter Pimm's has a base of brandy, with added apple juice and orange peel. It can also be served cold with ginger ale and lemonade. Summer Pimm's has a base of gin and you add either ginger ale or lemonade to it. Both drinks are refreshing and quaffable. A Pimm's cup:


Another beverage I got to try for the first time was Rekorderlig's strawberry and lime cider. This is a sweet beverage and barely tastes like alcohol at all. It's like drinking a delicious soda that has a bit of alcohol in it.


We also got to try an English fry-up for breakfast while we were in London and it hit the spot:


Tourist Sights
Here are pictures of some of the touristy things we saw.

Big Ben:


Buckingham Palace:
This is the Queen's least favorite residence, apparently.



Trafalgar Square:


Westminster Abbey:



I enjoyed how creepy and gothic Westminster Abbey was, especially on a dark and rainy day.

Covent Garden:


Christmas Day-Charles Dickens Walk
For Christmas Day, we went on a walking tour of London and a guide told us about Dickens' life in London.

Dickens regularly walked around London, typically walking 10-20 miles at a time. During these walks he would gather inspiration for his books from the city.

This door knocker may have been the inspiration for Scrooge (A Christmas Carol) seeing Marley's face in his door knocker:


Here is the Lamb and Flag pub that Dickens frequented:


Here's "The Old Curiosity Shop" (maybe). Named after the Dickens novel, they thought this antique shop may have been the inspiration for the shop in the book:


After the tour, we had to find a place that was open on Christmas for dinner. We finally happened across a French restaurant:



I got the coq a vin, which was excellent.




Tyson got the steak frites and he thought it was very good also.

Jack the Ripper Tour
I don't have any good pictures of this tour because it was dark out, but this made for a spooky atmosphere. Our guide was an awesome Scottish man. He was very respectful of all the victims of the ripper and he painted vivid pictures with his words. He was a great story teller; I felt like I was walking the streets of London in Victorian times. Here's a dark image I captured of the Ten Bells Pub, where some of the Ripper's victims would drink. You can't see much, but maybe you can imagine how scary it would be at night.



Here's a picture of the gas lights one would expect to find in the Victorian era (the city keeps up some of the gas lights to this day):



Friends
One of the coolest parts of this trip was that I got to meet my mom's longtime pen pal, Tracy. They had been writing letters and talking on the phone to each other since I was a little girl. My mom would show me and my sister pictures of Tracy's sons and tell us that we would marry them when we grew up! I regret that my mom passed away before she and Tracy could ever meet in person, but I'm so thankful that I was given this opportunity to meet her. She is a sweet person and a wonderful friend to my mom.

Farewell for now!
P.S. if you want one of the most delicious burgers of your life, go to a place called Byron's.