China hasn’t discovered the wonderment of good coffee yet and the city keeps teasing me with poor caffeinated options from the likes of SPR, Starbucks (!!) and the famous coffee machine on the 3rd floor of the Microsoft Sigma building which everyone claims is good espresso. It’s not.
They hate caffeine and coffee, and consequently means they hate freedom.
What do all 3 of these have in common? They personify Rome!
First let’s discuss sweat. Being a Vancouver native and now living in Seattle, I’m hot when it tips over 80 degrees, even without humidity. We took an insanely early train out of Cinque Terre today (5:25am!) so we could get to Rome at reasonable time. When we left the Termini train station we knew instantly it wasn’t good news. I was already sweating and we were about 15 steps from the train station. not good. We spent the day exploring a few of the major tourist “mus see” sights — the Colosseum, Palantine Hill, Trevi fountain and the Spanish steps. Along the way we must have drank 1 full gallon of water and I must have lost at least 5 pounds out of my pores.
Second, it’s the Coffee. I’m slowly eating and drinking my way through Italy. Gelato here is out of this world, as well as the coffee. I can’t tell you how good the coffee is, no matter where you get it. I had a cappucino this morning at the counter of the Macdonald’s in the Le Spezia train station at 6am. Ummm.. tasty! I think I’ve found my ultimate burial ground. When you bury me, make sure I have an espresso shot in my hand.
Lastly, let’s talk about Hypothermia. We’re staying our first night at this hostel called The Freestyle Hostel that we found last minute on Hostelworld.com. Our second night will be at a place called The Pop Inn since we couldn’t find a single place that we could stay the entire duration. The hostel so far is really nice, though not as nice as the Villa Saint Exupery in Nice. The room and board here includes free dinner and wine, which is never a bad thing since we’re trying to stretch our already thin money. After being out all day, we got back to the hostel at 7pm in time for dinner and a quick shower. The shower here has got to be the coldest shower on the bloody planet. To top it off there is no water pressure, but in retrospect, I’m not sure the pressure matters when you’re literally biting your tongue to stop yourself from screaming. I don’t even think it’s possible to have water this cold — it’s as if they have a mechanism to actually make the water colder.
We met some cool guys from London in the hostel tonight that we’ll probably hang out with tonight and go to a local bar. We’ve been up so long, I’m anxious for a low key night.
Tomorrow we’re hitting the Vatican most likely and maybe check out the statue of David if I feel up to a museum.
Oh how I love thee
Every morning I wake up to your beautiful aura
and you get my day started off with a rush
Your tantilizing heat, aroma and sweetness almost make me blush
Oh coffee, what would I do without you?
As you can tell from my really bad poetry above, I really love coffee and could be a borderline addict. Days that start off with a great cup of coffee are always the best! That’s the bonus of living in Seattle, since there are so many great coffee shops around, either chains like Starbucks and Tully’s or local independants. I heard some crazy fact that Seattle has the most coffee shops per square mile than any other city in the US. While I haven’t verified this, if you just walk around Seattle, you’ll be hard pressed not to believe this. Some of my favs on the westside are B&O and Vivace and on the eastside Jerzys does a reasonable job most days. My friend has recently made it his mission to expose me to more independant joints that I’ve never been to before.
One trend that I like with the independant coffee shops is the free wifi they offer. It allows me to have a great cup of coffee while I’m able to crunch some docs for work… utter bliss!
My absolute favorite coffee has to be Turkish Coffee — that intense strong taste and foamy top is to die for. Technically it’s not a particular type of coffee, but rather a method for prepartion. If you haven’t heard of Turkish coffee before, you may have heard of it referred to it as Greek Coffee or Armenian coffee. (In Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian cultures, it’s just known as “coffee”). For Turkish coffee, you start with very finely ground beans, almost baby powder like (even finer than what you use for espresso machines). You mix water directly with the ground beans and boil it on the stovetop. I always boil mine with sugar, but I do know in Croatia its commonplace to also take it with a little cream (which is blasphemy to me, but hey, each to his own). For those that are intrigued by my obsession, Coffee Geek has a great article on exact anal preparation of my coffee delight.
All this talk of Turkish coffee has me craving a cup, but since it’s 2:52am right now, probably not a good idea :) I guess i have a few hours until I can enjoy my sweatheart. Until then.
