Arrival, slow cell service, and no internet - yet !!!

The humans and animals arrived as scheduled a little over a week ago. I want to say thanks to the staff at the Schiphol Animal Hotel in Amsterdam for taking such good care of Java and Kona during their overnight stay during their travel. They arrived in clean cages and were eager to see us.

They have been exploring their new two story apartment. They especially enjoy the floor to ceiling windows and the stairs that overlook the living/dining room.  A few of the neighbor cats have come to the windows to say a friendly hello.

By the way, in the photo above, this is our living room and yes it is unfurnished. Shopping, shopping, shopping is what we have been doing. We feel like the first few days we lived at Ikea. Stocking a kitchen with dishes, pans, and all things needed to cook and store food is crazy to do from nothing.

The apartment came with a modern kitchen, dining table and chairs, a few small tables, shelving, a wardrobe, a dresser and I ordered a bed and mattress that was assembled the day before we arrived.

We've learned that things in Italy move slow and I mean s -  - l - - o - - w. Unless you are driving in traffic not during rush hour. Thank God Italian's drive on the same side of the road as Americans and thank goodness I remember how to drive a manual transmission car. Thanks, Dad!

Regarding slow, our apartment is lovely but cell service, while inside the walls, beyond sucks. Our internet isn't hooked up, yet. Meanwhile, we are trying to make do with a WiTourist (wifi pocket) which works about 50% of the time.

Kudos to ExpressVPN as we've been able to watch a couple of American TV shows via Hulu or Netflix when connected late at night. We would recommend this to anyone who lives abroad, is willing to pay a small monthly fee, and wants to watch American TV.  (By the way, yes, Italy has Netflix but the shows offered are not all the same - so, if you want to watch the third season of The Blacklist on Netflix while in Italy sign up for ExpressVPN.)

We'll be back a little later to share our grocery shopping experience.

Chaio
Lori & Michael

Hijacked Hello from Java...

Hi, this is Java, aka Bella. I've hijacked Lori's blog to share this opening post with you.

My FHS - "female human servant" - Lori, (the girl in the photo on the right) thinks she is Bella but I know the truth. I overheard the MHS - "male human servant" - Michael, (the boy in the photo on the right) say that since we are all going to Italy together that we needed Italian nicknames. He has started to call us Bella and Gianni.

Now, you should know that Kona is still a kitten, even though he is as big as I am, and he hasn't even figured out that the humans named him Kona.  So, there is no chance that he will answer to Gianni in the near future. lmao

By the way, I'm the adorable blue eyed Siamese in the above photo and we are currently surrounded by new cat carriers, suitcases, and tons of clothes are being sorted and packed and move around (they are really fun to hide in).

We've visited the Vet twice and both times were poked, prodded and treated for fleas all as a precaution. I overhead that the USDA needed to give us some official seal and signatures in order to enter Italy - such an ordeal! I've been through this before - flying from JFK to LAX - but this time to Italy, wow this is going to be one long flight. There will be benefits on the other side: I've overheard that there will be radiant floor heating, a yard to play in, and tons of snuggles.

I hope you've enjoyed my hijacked post. I won't be writing often but I just wanted you to know that we are just as excited to be going on this adventure.

xo Java aka Bella

PS: I hope you follow along as I know that Lori will post many photos of their adventures in Italy.