Rome, Italy

Phew, four full days (five nights) in a very hot Rome. Temperatures were edging towards 40C (104F for our American viewers) and the days were clear. We got a real sense of how harsh the sun is at home with no reported sunburn despite not using sunscreen.

Where do you start with Rome? We began and ended with the Trevi Fountain. We figure it must be the most photographed fountain in the world. It collects quite a crowd, most of whom are probably wondering what all the fuss is about without realising it's just the fact that so many people are there that makes it special. It was interesting that on the last night the water was turned off and the crowd was considerably smaller than it had been all the other times. Perhaps staring at running cold water is what people are looking for after a day in 40C?

Other highlights include our hotel room (quite a step up from the Parisian cupboard of last week), the PANTHEON, Coliseum, Trastavere Markets, the Meridian line in a church (the name of which we have forgotten) and of course the Vatican. Lowlights include the queue at the Sistine Chapel (2kms long by some estimations!) and 'salespeople' at the Trevi Fountain selling roses (their favourite trick is to say to the woman that the flower is free, give it to her and then tell the guy to cough up the cash).

The PANTHEON was incredible. It is such a complete space. Its scale is comfortable without being overbearing and then there is the very delicate aperture letting just enough light in to make it feel like it's about to float away. Quite different is the Coliseum which is much larger and much less complete. It takes quite a bit of imagination to make sense of it but that which is left is very interesting from a structural point of view. It was apparently built in five years (construction was carried out 24 hours a day) and for something that seems so pure in form, its construction is very varied. Different materials are used for similar structural elements in different locations. We figured it was probably due to poor documentation by the architect. Can you tell that Mat wrote this???

A lot of our time was spent walking again (more blisters). On Sundays there is a large flea market in the Trastavere area. It is the largest market either of us had ever seen. It took us about an hour to walk through it, non-stop. You could buy everything there. Not that you would want to though. Bad souvenirs, naked barbies, gramophones, dodgy electronics, bad music etc. It was still worth the visit though. It was impressively large and we got to see someone arrested!

So we're pretty exhausted now. As I write this we're sitting in the airport waiting for our flight to Barcelona where we have four nights. We then return to London where we are yet to secure jobs or accommodation so we should have an exciting few weeks ahead of us! We will keep everyone up to date by way of blog updates as things happen.

M+S

P.S. we're glad to see New Zealand making the international news here. First there was boy racers in Dunedin throwing bottles at the cops and then there was some guy stuck down a cave for four days. Sounds like all good news! Bring on the World Cup!

Architectural highlight (and total museum/gallery visits):
The PANTHEON. "Butt ugly" from the outside according to Sam but pretty cool on the inside. Graeme McConchie's Place Marking/Place Making lectures came flooding back.
Total museum and gallery visits = 7 (It's hard to determine what is a gallery or museum here and strictly speaking we didn't go into any so we're gonna call Rome one big museum)

Shopping highlight (and total black strappy shoe purchases):
The only things we bought was a book on Rome's sights and an adaptor plug. The shopping highlight however was Louis Vuitton's shop window near the Spanish Steps. It sort of has to be seen to be understood but basically they had used the front of each step in a stair case as a big LCD screen with what was essentially a big screen saver on it. OK it doesn't sound as cool when you write down but it was.
Total number of black strappy shoe purchases = 2 (we got close to buying some white strappy ones though!)

Lessons learnt:
The collapse of the Roman Empire was probably due to a complete lack of information about the public transport system.
Instead of queuing to buy a ticket for the Coliseum at the Coliseum, go to Palatine Hill (close by) and buy a combined ticket for about 2 euro more. You miss the queue entirely (except for the x-ray machine) and you get to go up Palatine hill too, which is well worth the visit.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do – have a siesta. It's annoying and you feel like you are wasting the day but it means you can enjoy the city at night (when everything is open) and avoid the hottest parts of the day.
Don't sell stuff at the Trastavere market without a licence.
Italian road markings are a rough guide only.

Fear Factor:
3/10 You always have the feeling that someone is either trying to rip you off or steal your wallet.

Funniest moment:
The applause as we landed here. We had a bumpy flight here and either our fellow passengers were glad that we made it alive or they were happy to be home. Either way, we're looking forward to joining in on our flight to Barcelona.

Total number of Thai meals so far:
Nil. We're sure you can find Thai food here but it's probably on a Pizza.

Paris, France

After a rather frantic week in London visiting friends, recruitment agencies and potential jobs, we flew to Paris on Saturday the 18th.

When they talk about Paris as being the city of love and you see all those romantic shots of little alley ways with Frenchmen in berets painting on the side of the street, you'll notice that it isn't pouring with rain. Well, it seems that it does in fact rain in Paris and we have the photos to prove it. Out of the four full days we had there, three of them were pretty damp. Much of our time was spent dodging the showers while the last day was just plain wet.

Now, we didn't let this stop us. We saw a lot including The Louvre, Notre Dame, The Champs Elyse and the Eiffel tower (well sort of). One day (the sunny one) was spent at Disneyland and a lot of time was spent walking (Sam has the blisters to prove it). We didn't however finish everything we wanted to do. The weather was so poor that we never went up the tower. There didn't seem much point in going all the way up there when we could hardly see the other end of the Champs Elyse!

The real highlight was Sacre Coeur. It's the little artists area on the highest hill in Paris. You get a great view of most of the city (all of it if you go for a wander), there are great little restaurants, street stalls and the church rocks! It's a great little spot and when we go back to knock off the tower we will be sure to spend a bit of time up there again.

Disneyland was pretty cool too. It is very well done with some serious structures built in and around the rides. Although everything is made to look plasticy it's all done in serious materials and is as 'authentic' as you can imagine. Now the rides! Space mountain rates highly. We've never done the ride in L.A. but we imagine it's the same. Completely black and you can't tell whether you're going up, down or somewhere in between. Indiana Jones provides a briefer experience but at least you can see where you're going! Disney Parade, ice cream, hotdogs, french fries (that's right in their country of origin!) and lots of small kids at various stages of exhaustion all played their part in the experience.

Finally, just a note that on Thursday the 16th, Sam's grandmother, Joan Fickling, passed away. For those of you at our wedding you will remember her as the incredibly strong and wonderful woman who read a small piece during the ceremony and later joined us on the dance floor! She will be sorely missed and our thoughts have been at home for the last week or so.

We are currently in Rome and will post another update soon.

M+S

Architectural highlight (and total museum/gallery visits):
The Eiffel Tower. Even though we didn't get to go up it, it is a great structure, landmark and urban space all at the same time.
Total museum and gallery visits = 6 (Just The Louvre! It probably counts for more than one)

Shopping highlight (and total black strappy shoe purchases):
Spending 30 Euro (NZ$60) on a light lunch and a snack at Disneyland.
Total number of black strappy shoe purchases = 2

Lessons learnt:
It rains in Paris.
Don't have an ice cream just before queuing for Space Mountain – you will feel sick.
Despite all the warnings on their website, it would be very easy to smuggle your own (and therefore much cheaper) food into Disneyland.
Yes, someone does think it's a good idea to put built-in 'his and hers' ashtrays in hotel bathrooms.
Stopping smoking in public places is one of the best things New Zealand has ever done.

Fear Factor:
2/10 The language challenges were numerous but the Parisians were actually really good at putting up with our very limited French and then speaking to you in English. There's nothing better than feeling completely ignorant to remind you that you are a long way from home.

Funniest moment:
So often this section refers to Sam in some way or another. This time is no different. Sam is making notes about little cultural differences she picks up on our travels. It's a great idea and it will be a great resource to look back on and remind us of things we noticed at the time. A little gem however is the one that says – "McDonalds is the same, M&Ms are different". You can tell we have been immersing ourselves into the culture here.

Total number of Thai meals so far:
None. We are looking at living in Bayswater in London and that's chocker with Thai restaurants. Along with Chinese, Russian, Turkish and Indian. We hope to report a Thai meal soon!

New York City

We leave New York City today (friday) but we have had the chance to go and visit New York City over the last few days. We have both been here before so we had a few things we wanted to have a look at and tended to concentrate our efforts on those. By the end of the three days though we both had difficulty walking any further.

The first day was cut a bit short as we had dinner with the Rossbach's that night (we still ran late!). Most of it was sent around Times Square. Yes, there are enough shops and sights to keep you busy for the whole day. We did go to the biggest Build-a-Bear shop in the world on 5th Ave though and Sam was able to cash in her birthday present before departure. Basically at Build-a-Bear you get to choose what sort of bear you want, stuff him/her, cloth him/her, name him/her etc. It's done very well and the 5-10 year olds have a great time and get very excited (so do the 28 year olds).






















Day two was spent at the Museum of Modern Art and the Frick Collection. MoMA was very good but its architectural section was a bit disappointing (read almost non-existent). Here was a Richards Sierra exhibition on which was great. Interestingly you can take photos at MoMA. It's a shame no-one told us that before standing in the que for 30minutes to check our bag. The Frick was good. It's pretty impressive for what was a private collection. Day two was wrapped up by wandering past Yoko Ono's place and down to Foster's new building just south of Central Park.


Day three was spent wandering again but this time through Greenwich Village, SoHo, China Town and the Seaport area on the lower east side. These areas are a bit smaller in scale and it's almost easy to forget that you're in one of the biggest cities in the world. One weird thing that happened was that we saw the same people twice in one day. We saw them in SoHo at around 12:00 and again at about 4:30 a few miles away on 5th Ave. Considering that there must be millions of people in this city at any one point in time, the chances of seeing the same people twice EVER is pretty slim. Perhaps we're being followed?





















So, that's all from us in the USA. Our next update will be from London. We've both got interviews there and should have plenty of news to report after our week there. On the 18th we start a whistle stop tour of Paris, Rome and Barcelona over two weeks.

A few facts an figure from our two month USA tour:
We drove 7600 miles (approx 12,000 kilometres)
We stayed in 17 different places.

M+S

















Architectural highlight (and total museum/gallery visits):
MoMA's 40yrs of Richard Sierra exhibition. The rest of MoMA was a bit disappointing. Total museum and gallery visits = 5 (including the Frick collection on 5th Ave)

Shopping highlight (and total black strappy shoe purchases):
Build a Bear!
Total number of black strappy shoe purchases = 2

Lessons learnt:
Bras are optional in New York City.

Fear Factor:
2/10 people, people, people, people, people........

Funniest moment:
You know how when you're at a party and the music stops and everyone goes quiet except you and YOU SOUND LIKE YOU'RE YELLING? Well, we're in Foot Locker (a sports shoe shop) and we've noticed that all of the staff are African Americans. We figure that they probably choose the music because it's all sung by fellow African Americans and they are both singing and dancing to it (and having a lot of fun). Anyway, so we're talking about this as a song is coming to an end and Sam says "Yeah, I reckon I could work here all day with all these BLACK DUDES!" Hasty retreat.

Total number of Thai meals so far:
Zero still but we did find a restaurant just down the road!

Boston, Massachusetts

Our coaching has now finished and with about ten days spare before we fly to England we have taken the opportunity to borrow the 'A' Team van and see some of the parts of the country we would have otherwise missed.

The little snippets of the New England area we got (Newport and Roger Williams) suggested that it was perhaps a good idea to come back and have a look. On top of that we have some family friends living in Boston who had offered a bed to sleep in if we were ever in the area. With the promise of free accommodation and some beautiful surroundings we were hardly in a position to say no. So, we're now sitting in John and Travis's holiday home in Marion having spent the last two days walking and shopping our way around Boston.



















Boston was cool. It feels small in comparison to other cities we have been to but it might just be a case of it being so easy to get around. It is of course home to Harvard, Boston College, Tufts, MIT and a handful of other colleges so it is pretty user friendly for those who are too poor, lazy or drunk to use a car. We had a very brief wander around the Harvard Campus. It's slightly different to the Unitec campus......there are no public tours of the grounds at Unitec for a start.

The city itself has a couple of centres. The older part of the city is in the East and has a lot of very good old buildings. They are interspersed with a number of new buildings however. There is a real mixture of scale and material. Having said that, the older buildings are typically adapted and form an important part of the city. The Western centre has its fair share of older buildings too but there are far more newer buildings and developments.



















Tomorrow (Monday) we drive back to New Jersey and we are staying at a house near New York City until we leave. We have a lot to do with booking our European tour and generally setting ourselves up in England but we will be travelling into NYC as much as we can. We fly out on Friday (that's right, this week!) and will be in England for at least a week before we head to Europe. We're very much looking forward to catching up with our long lost friends and Sam is almost gagging for a "snakebite" at the local Walkabout pub.

We're really glad that a lot of you are checking out the site (it would make all this typing a great waste of time if no one was reading it). One of the down sides is that it's not so easy to hit "reply" and fill us in on your news. So, if you haven't been in touch for a while, drop us an e-mail and tell us what's happening. We've been keeping up to date on NZL news through websites but none of you have featured!

Catch you later from a safe and happy,

M+S

Architectural highlight (and total museum/gallery visits):
There were a number here! We got a tour through Liberty Jail which is being turned into a 4 star hotel (through Travis'office). The Institute for Contemporary Arts and Boston Library also ranked highly. Total museum and gallery visits = 3 (phew – I thought I might have forgotten how to do it!)














Shopping highlight (and total black strappy shoe purchases):
A new suitcase to carry all our shopping........
Total number of black strappy shoe purchases = 2 ...... well it's still one but only because Sam's newest pair of shoes don't have any straps.

Lessons learnt:
Driving 6 hours to get somewhere is nothing (as long as where you're going is worth going to).
New England is called New England because it's just like a new England.

Fear Factor:
1/10 We're slightly concerned that it might be OK to live somewhere like Boston.

Funniest moment:
It's always hard picking one out but a recent subway trip with a lady who was clearly hearing voices (and talking back to them) brought a smile to our faces when she came out with "I don't care if you are a doctor, the answer is still NO! Now go back to your wife".

Total number of Thai meals so far:
Still zero but we've decided it's a case of there being a lack of availability. The only place you can buy Thai is at a Japanese restaurant.