Almost home!

So since my last blog, we've just been relaxing. Its been wonderful here! Yesterday we spent the day at the beach, and then took a nap and got ready to watch the Germany vs. Spain World Cup match. Normally I don't watch soccer…or any other sport for that matter, but Kendra, Kelly and Farrah were really excited for the Germans to play, because they love Germany and Kendra has family there. It was crazy seeing the game here though, because there were actual Germans and Spanish. They had flags and everything. Germany lost, and so the girls were upset. At one point, Kendra's sunglasses fell off of her head, and somehow when I went to pick them up, my shoe fell off, and when I sat back up, I said "Where's my shoe?" and looked down, and Kendra had it on her foot. We laughed about that for a good ten minutes.

Sadly since yesterday I've not been feeling good. I've got a lot of snot! And I think I might have a fever. But at least its at the end of the trip, and not the beginning. I can't wait to come home! Traveling has been great, but there are so many things that I'm looking forward to! So many things.

Today we said goodbye to the girls. So this morning we came downstairs to meet them and saw that they were about to leave because they had to leave earlier than we had thought, and so they left us a very cute note, but luckily we saw them in time. They are traveling back to Germany, and Fran and I are staying here in the Cinque Terre for one more night before starting the trek back home. Tomorrow I probably won't have time to write, because we are leaving here pretty early, on the train back to Rome, which will take about four hours. And then another train to the airport. Our flight leaves at 9.30 pm, and then we have a 14 hour layover in Dublin, then a five hour layover in Chicago before heading to Phoenix. And theeeen we get to drive for an hour and a half to Tucson!! Its gonna be like 28 hours of traveling, but at least we get a day back.

And I realize that I'm not taking very many photos here. When I'm sick I don't even want to move! So I had Fran take one of me in the marina by the beach.

And of this cute cat in a flower box.

Ok, so I finally made it to an area where I could get wifi for my laptop. Otherwise I would have been continuously blogging, and they would have been in order. But I accidentally started these backwards, so the first post under this one is when we first made it to Rome, and then the last new post is from yesterday. Sorry its so confusing! I didn't have time to fix it, because the internet here is super expensive!!

Love!

Rome! And the Colosseum. June 1-2

We left our hotel in Athens for the airport at 9 am. We took the metro straight to the airport, which was about a 45 minute ride. We said our goodbyes to Erica and Katie, who also left at the same time, and then waited at our gate for around two hours, because our flight didn't leave until 1.30, and there was barely a security line.

I took a dramamine, and so I have basically no memory of the flight, haha, except for waking up facing the strange guy next to me with my mouth wide open. I'm pretty sure him and his friends were laughing at the way I was sleeping.

When we got to Rome, we took the train to Termini station. We met this really nice Romanian woman who has been living outside of Florence for the past 12 years, and her daughter. She took our map of Rome and circled all of the places that we should visit, and then gave us her phone number when we got off the train, saying that we should call her if we had any questions or if we were going to Florence (which we might). It sounded like she would show us around the town!

Our hostel is a five minute walk down Via Carlo Cattaneo, and we found it after a few minutes of walking around and asking people for directions. Normally I get really flustered when I don't know exactly where I'm going, but since I've been here and in Greece, I've been trying to just go with the flow more. Everything works out in the end!

We got all checked in, and I asked if my friends Kendra, Kelly and Farrah had arrived yet. We've been planning on meeting up here in Italy for at least three months, and I've been super excited to see them! Turns out, they accidentally made reservations at the other Hostel Alessandro, which is about 15 minutes away on the other side of the train station. So Fran and I booked it over to the other hostel and met up with them! Both our hostels had a free pasta dinner, and so we decided to meet up after and get gelato. We invited some of the people in our hostel to come with us, but only one Canadian guy came with us.

We all went out for gelato, and then Brendan the Canadian saw some other girls he knew who were walking to the Trevi Fountain and asked us to go with them. It took forever to get there, mainly because we had no idea where we were going, but it was totally worth it. The crowd was large for 10 pm, but it was beautiful!!!

After we made it back we were so exhausted. And of course everyone else in our hostel room was already asleep, which makes getting ready for bed harder because you have to be quiet and do things in the dark.

This morning we woke up at 7.30 to meet up with the girls and walk to the Colosseum, which is probably a 20 minute walk from the hostel. It was amazing. Its really hard to describe it and how huge it really is, because you can't even get the scope of it in pictures.

I really wish they offered more Roman history classes at school, because everyone kept asking me questions since I'm the history buff and anthro major. But I have no idea about a lot of Roman history. I need to take more classes!!!

We bought a tour thingy when we got there, which cost 20 euro (normal ticket entrance without a tour is 12) but we didn't feel like the guy was telling us relevant information and we decided to leave the tour and walk around on our own. He kept talking about random people choking animals with their bare hands in the arena and odd (and I feel not true) facts. He also said that they never actually re-created sea battles in the Colosseum, which I've heard they really did.

After we left, we went across the street to an overpriced place to eat, which had decent food. Then we tried to go to the Forum and around Palantine Hill, but for some reason we couldn't actually find the entrance, so we gave up and are now having a siesta in the hostel.

I'm not sure that Rome is what I expected. In my head I kept repeating that part in Count of Monte Cristo, when Count Mondego's son is begging him to let him and his friends go to Rome for Carnivale, and when he finally agrees, the son runs out into the hall and yells "Rome!" And then they cut to the streets of Rome in the late 1700's during Carnivale. I think that's what I was expecting.

Fran, me, Kendra, Kelly and Farrah in front of the Trevi Fountain.

Me and Fran in front of Trevi Fountain.

The Colosseum!
The underground part of the Colosseum, which would have been originally covered by a wood floor.
Kendra me and Fran in the Colosseum.

The Vatican June 3

We woke up at around 7 to go to the Vatican. We took the metro to the stop nearest Vatican City, and walked the rest of the way. We got stopped by another guy trying to promote guided tours, and since the line was already so long at 9ish am (about 2 hours long if I had to guess), we decided to take the guy up on his offer. Of course we got 'a special discount' of 35 euros, which included entrance and guide fees.

Our guide was AWESOME!!! His name was Jay, and he really knew not only his Vatican history and facts, but information about everything else. He was originally from the United States so he was easy to understand, and had gotten either his masters or doctorate. At first we thought he was really nerdy, but as the tour went on we were amazed. If you ever get a Vatican tour, try and get this guy. We even got his email in case we want him to guide us through the catacombs later in the week.

The tour was about three hours long, and we started out in the Vatican Museum, which was full of beautiful paintings and statues. We saw a few by Raphael, Michelangelo, and da Vinci. You know, no big deal.

We went through the Sistine Chapel, which was incredible, and a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be. You are strictly forbidden to take pictures within the Sistine Chapel, but I did. I know, that's really bad, and if I had been caught (which I almost was) you would have your camera confiscated and probably be kicked out. But luckily no one really saw me, and I got a couple of good pictures. I held the camera down my my waist and took them without looking.

The tour ended right before we went into St. Peter's Basilica, and believe it or not I was sad it was over! We went inside and saw Michelangelo's Pieta. I learned that apart from the United States, it has never traveled anywhere in the world. And as a thank you to the Vatican, the US donated a heavy bulletproof glass to protect it. Apparently in the 1970's, a psychotic 'artist' attacked the statue with a hammer, screaming "I am Jesus and this is not my mother!" He broke off Mary's nose, left arm, some of her robe, and part of her face. At his trial, he declared that he was the messiah. The tour guide says that there is a youtube video of it.

We didn't spend much time in the Basilica, because it was HUGE! We were told it is the largest Christian church in the world, apart from one in the Ivory Coast which wasn't acknowledged by the pope for a while anyway, and even then its only a few meters larger. Oh, and outside of the Basilica, I definitely tripped up the marble stairs. Again. But it wasn't my fault! I saw a monk that distracted me from concentrating on the stairs…he was wearing Teva's and sunglasses with his monk's robe.

We said goodbye to Kendra, Kelly and Farrah then and Fran and I continued on under the Basilica to the tombs of the popes. We weren't allowed to take photos here either, and I didn't want to be disrespectful because they were actual tombs. I saw the tomb of Pope John Paul II, which was the last pope for those of you who didn't know, and there were still notes and flowers. Its obvious that he was a very beloved leader.

We stopped by a souvenir shop and also the Vatican Book store, where we got a few gifts. AKA finally got your Vulgate Nick!!!

We left the Vatican at around two, and I grabbed pizza before getting back on the metro. Our hostel is basically on the other side of Rome than the Vatican, and so it would have taken forever to walk there. The rest of the day we just rested at our hostel, watching a little bit of Lord of the Rings on my computer. Tonight we're making dinner with Kendra, Kelly and Farrah, and taking it easy again tonight.

Next we're going to Pompeii!!

By Raphael.
Also by Raphael. Its a huge painting! At least 12 feet high.

The School of Athens.

Sictine Chapel ceiling. Sorry they're blurry! I had to be quick or I would be in serious trouble by the guards.

Michelangelo's Pieta
Me inside of St. Peter's Basilica.

And outside of the Basilica.

Pompeii June 4

Pompeii was amazing! Kendra, Kelly, Farrah and I got on a 7.10 train to Napoli (Naples) and then transferred to another smaller train directly to Pompeii. We weren't sure exactly where the site was in relation to the train station, so we booked a tour of the site right away and stopped to grab lunch. The tour was alright, but I don't think he showed us anything that we couldn't figure out on our own with a map, and for some reason he really liked to point out the erotic paintings and anything that had any relation to sex. "Sexy time!"

I had no idea that the site was going to be so large! Apparently its around 5 square miles, and we walked around what felt like all of it. Only something like 30% has been excavated, which is really amazing because what has been excavated is huge.

Although visiting Pompeii was great, it took all day and I was exhausted when we got back at around 6 pm. The girls and I got pizza, and convinced Fran and I to leave Rome and go to Cinque Terre, which is about four hours north of Rome and on the coast. We cancelled the rest of our reservation in Rome (luckily I got the cancellation policy for 2 extra euros!) and booked a hotel in Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre (there are five small towns, the big thing is to hike in between them along the coast).

A perfectly preserved mosaic dedicated to Venus.

Me and Farrah. See how much further that street goes back behind us?

Me in the entrance to some baths.
A bunch of plaster molds were made of the bodies that were captured by ash and gasses from the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 AD.

Riomaggiore, Cinque Terre 6-5

So we hopped on the 8 am train. I really think four days in Rome was totally enough. The sites were amazing, and the Vatican as well, but the modern city of Rome is dirty, smelly, and kinda sucks your soul out. I suggest staying in another city and taking a couple of day trips into Rome.

As soon as we got here we felt better, even though there are thousands of stairs everywhere, and the little village is on a hill. Which meant carrying my suitcase vertically for about a mile. Well not really, but it felt like it since my luggage weighs a ton.

But our hotel is pretty nice, Fran and I actually have our own room and bathroom, so its a wonderful change from the hostel in Rome, and only 10 euro more a night. Totally worth it to be 10 minutes from the beach in a super cute and quiet beach town.

Today we got in and went directly to the beach, after a short nap. The beach here isn't sandy, but super rocky. We didn't mind, we were just glad to be near the ocean again. There are lots of tourists here, and I noticed that most of them are from some English speaking country--America, England, Canada, Australia. Although the town doesn't feel touristy, because there aren't very many shops and only a few pizza places.