Hello everyone!I am back in the good ole US of A*, but I need to finish recounting my travels. A brief recap: smog ruined my life in Turkey, so I missed my flight. One might suspect after we made it on our (new) flight, that chapter of my life would be complete. And one would be wrong.
*As this was posted. When I was writing it, I was in a lovely (sarcasm
hand raised so fast it created a sonic boom) airport in Madrid.
After the Terror in Turkey…Is that too dramatic? Perchance. I’ll start
over: Being frustrated and having lots of feelings *shudder*, Katie and I both
ranted about missing our flight in our journals (Or rant books, if you will. I
prefer that term.) for a long time. A solid hour of silence and writing only
partially helped, so we began planning our time until our new flight left at
10PM. With eight hours to kill, it became a discussion of how long we would sit
in one place before migrating because there is not a lot to do in airports
especially sans Wi-Fi. Finally it was time to board and everything went well on
the flight and we made it to Rome. Celebration time!
We grabbed a cab outside the Rome airport and shared with two old
Italian ladies. The conversation occurred in three languages because we found
out our cabbie, Claudio, could speak Spanish as well as English. I said it in
my other Italy post, but there are definitely similarities between Spanish and
Italian, so, to a degree, there was a level of understanding between us and the
Italian ladies. Claudio was excellent in Spanish and English, so it was easy to
understand him.
After our 50 euro ride, we made it to the hostel building and we climbed
out. It was well after midnight, so Claudio waited to make sure we got into the
building alright.
This section can be called “All Hell Breaks Loose: Part II.”
As you might guess from how our day went, no one answered when we buzzed
the room. We kept trying but yeah, no. Wasn’t gonna happen. Fortunately, a man
was going in the building so our cabbie talked to him and made it so all three
of us could trail in behind him. We tramped up to the room to find out that
while our hostel doesn’t have a curfew, that doesn’t mean there will be a
receptionist at all hours of the night. So our options were to wait outside for
maybe someone, sometime to show up or start knocking on the doors of hostels in
the same building. We opted to knock on doors.
Lucky for us (Oh wait…), everything was full. Katie ended up mostly
begging (in Spanish) an old Italian man for space in a corner of a hostel. Not even
for a bed or anything, we just needed a roof in all honesty. Obviously, it was
against all hostel rules or laws of the land or something to let us stay, but
Old Italian Gentleman let us stay for a reduced price. We ended up sleeping at
a table in the tiny lobby for five hours.
When I say “sleep” that is generous. There were other occupants who came
in at all hours of the night and desks are quite comfortable. Yeah… Despite
this, all of my faith in humanity is restored. Our cabbie gave us his card and
I am nearly positive he would have let us stay in his house or driven us
somewhere else had we needed it. Old Italian Man gave us pillows and soap and a
shower made me feel like a real person again. The day and night were terrible,
but people are good.
After a refreshing night of sleep (Ha.), we headed to a different hostel
at 7 AM to check in and actually start the day. Our room wasn’t ready, but we
stored our things and ate breakfast and it somewhat revived us. On our
two/three hours of sleep, we headed out to the Vatican for mass. We read somewhere
that mass started at 9 AM, so we got there a little early to get good places
and because we had nothing else to do. (Except sleep…I don’t know how we
function.)
Unfortunately, mass didn’t really start until 10:30 AM. There was some
singing and mass-y sort of things going on from 9-10:30, but it was pretty
clear it wasn’t particularly significant because all of the Italians were
chatting with each other and cracking jokes. Because of our recent streak of
luck, it was raining during almost the entire service and neither Katie nor I
had an umbrella. But Italians are my favorite people because they shared and
would jostle us forward to get into position under the canopy of umbrellas. One
lady even gave us an extra for a while.
Sidenote: “Umbrelli” said with a super thick Italian accent is possibly
the best word ever. I heard it a bazillion times and will never get sick of it.
We were pretty exhausted by the time Communion occurred because we had been
standing in the rain for about three hours, listening to another language and
being overwhelmed by the crowds. This was made better by two things. One was,
obviously, seeing the Pope and having him drive his little Pope-mobile through
the crowds. Because I am smallish, a bunch of Italian ladies shoved me up to
the front. Southern hospitality has nothing on All Italians. The second
occurred while waiting for the Pope. Katie and I had both noticed an extremely
attractive guard, and it seemed we weren’t the only ones. It was hilarious to
hear all the little, old Italian ladies chattering among themselves with the
recurring word “Novio” or boyfriend. If that can’t make your day, I don’t know
what can.
After mass, we raced back to the hostel to change clothes and head out
once again because there was so much to see. Katie grabbed her umbrella and we
got some food from a Mini-Mart and it seemed almost as though we never left the
Vatican because we were back so quickly. We ended up in a massive line to see
Saint Peter’s Basilica, which was well worth the wait. It was adorned with so
many different colors of marble and shnazzy statues and gold and extravagance.
Etc. Etc. (We know how I feel about descriptions by now.) So pictures!
Like any good monument, it had a place you could climb up: the dome. The
climb wasn’t so bad until everything started being sideways to follow the curve
of the roof. I was okay until we came out and were able to look down into the
church from the dome. I can remember the feeling of my stomach just dropping
and dropping and drop p i n g…After that, I stayed as close to the wall as I
could until we climbed back outside. I’m fairly certain Katie was amused
because she didn’t realize I had a slight phobia of falling to my doom.
We had been inside long enough for the weather to clear up, so we
decided to head to the Spanish Steps and Trevi Fountain to complete the day. We
climbed all of the steps which was a challenge because my legs didn’t feel like
being legs after standing so much early in the morning. In addition, I don’t
think I’ve ever been so aware of the number of tourists in one place. We sat on
the steps to relax a bit before strolling over to the Trevi. Like all good
tourists in Italy, we stopped for gelato first, because gelato. Mint gelato and
famous monuments. Nothing better. We took some classic pictures of throwing
coins into the fountain (One coin to return to Rome, two to find love in the
city and three doesn’t matter because the first two are all you need. I wished
for my Vatican guard boyfriend.)
We went to bed early because lack of sleep from the night before was
killing us. Or tried to. I distinctly remember locking myself in a bathroom
which made bedtime a little later. So it goes.
I Too Tired
Dear readers, I am going insane in this airport. I have begun rewriting that one
Robert Frost poem about woods and snowiness because of the line “And miles to
go before I sleep.” Want to read it? Of course you do!
Whose wi-fi this is I think I know
He's guarded it with a password though.
He must have some idea I'm here,
So I can't steal it and that blows.
My brain has gone a little weird
Because there are no people near.
My mind and body start to ache
As though I've sat here for a year.
I give my little legs a shake
Thinking there is some mistake
My foot has fallen fast asleep
End the tingling for heaven's sake.
This airport makes me want to weep,
But I have a flight to (HOPEFULLY) keep
And miles to go before I sleep
And miles to go before I sleep.
That’s 6AM poetry of a madwoman for you. Carry on with the rest of my
Roman Holiday.
Because there was so much to do in Rome, we were up again way too early
the next day as well. We were met with beautiful drizzle like the morning
before because that must be how Rome rolls. Katie and I got up so early for
more standing in the lines. Yay! We walked over to the Vatican museum and got
into an enormous mass of people to wait almost three hours before entering.
Despite my complaints about lines, everything we saw was well worth it. There
were tons of religious paintings, naked statues (Classic) and random artifacts
throughout the museum. Also, someone needed to tell the painters how to paint
babies because baby Jesus was terrifying in all of the paintings of him. I get
nightmares.
The crowning jewel came at the end: Rafael’s School of Athens fresco and
*trumpets*
Do do do do
do doooooooooooooooooo!
The Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was a genius in both painting and
sculpture and this shows it. It was awesome to just stand and stare for a while
because you could keep discovering details. And details. And oh, some more
details. No pictures were allowed though, so go buy your ticket to Rome! This
is a joke…but really. Just do it.
To get out of the rain and fill our grumbling bellies, we hopped over to
the nearby pizza place. Sitting is the nicest thing I will ever experience in
my life. Maybe a little travel here and there too. But mostly sitting.
We continued our search of Super Famous Stuff by walking (busing? I
can’t remember…UGH) over to the Coliseum. I was very excited to see this
because Gladiator is the greatest movie ever. Okay, really good. Maybe not
quite the greatest. As per usual, rain occurred while we were there but we had
already taken some good pictures and seen most of it by the time that happened.
It was spectacular to see because of how amazingly, mind-bogglingly old it is.
And history! And time! Whoa, guys was I excited for a second.
With our ticket to the Coliseum, the Roman Forum was also included.
These were some spectacular ruins across from the Coliseum that don’t get
enough attention for how cool they are. It was more of the history/time
nerdiness coming out for this entire place because my imagination goes crazy in
these types of places. Why don’t ya got any ruins, Minnesota?
We wandered around these quintessential Roman ruins until an
announcement came that the park was closing. The first exit we got to was
already locked, so my legs were loving me by the time we made it back to the original
entrance.
I am fairly certain we went to the train station one of these days to
purchase tickets for the rest of our journey. I can’t remember which day, but
it took up some of our afternoon. We can say it was this day. Yup.
After, we went out to eat and I remember none of this. All I have
written about it in my notebook is “Okay pasta.” So I had some okay pasta. And
I guarantee you we went to bed after that, once again walking with our
too-stiff legs from our walking-around-so-much-how-can-legs-feel-like-this day.
The next day, we woke up late. Nope, early again. We had a train to catch but decided to stop by the Pantheon first. On our way, we stumbled upon a really cool piazza with a fountain by someone famous depicting river gods and four continents. It was fun to guess which were which but we had Not Enough Time, so we kept walking to the Pantheon. This was fascinating because it was once dedicated to ancient Roman gods and now is Christian and the fact that something in such good condition has been around so long is crazy. Crazy I tell you! (Like me at this point. Airports, am I right?)
We grabbed our stuff from the hostel and made it to the train station
well before our departure, thank everything holy. There was a nearby church
with a fancy sculpture Katie wanted to see, so we dragged our stuff through the
drizzle and went into the church one at a time, with one person guarding the
keerap outside. Apparently the sculpture was in a different church, so some
nice Italian gent escorted Katie there and back before we raced off to the
station again.
A train ride brought us to a new city and it was time to find our
hostel, which is always a fun game.
Our directions took us through a rather large outdoor market, and I can’t think
of a better place to drag my gigantic suitcase. That might not be accurate. To
add to it when we got to our hostel, there was no elevator. So. Many. Stairs.
God bless the Italians for carrying my suitcase up three flights of stairs.
After getting settled, we went back out to go to the largest church in
the city, the Duomo. It was built a long time ago (Surprising) but the entire
fancy façade was added much later. Pictures will help you understand. This
inside was surprisingly bare except for the dome and a counterclockwise clock.
I want one. As a good Cathedral, there was a tower we climbed for a great view
of the city.
We (I) had had enough excitement with heights, so we went to the market
and both bought items. I splurged and purchased an Italian leather purse
because I needed a new bag and there will never be a better time. We got all
our shopping done surprisingly quickly and knew of a place across the river to
watch sunset. We had the first major navigation error where we walked parallel
to the river for a good half hour before we realized we were getting nowhere.
Oops. Luckily, there was still enough time to get to the top and enjoy (with
all the other tourists) the sunset. Magnificent, as always.
We wandered on that side of the river to find a restaurant that had been
recommended to us, but alas, were unsuccessful. Luckily, the ravioli I ended up
getting at the Random Restaurant was still quite good. Walking back proved
almost as difficult as finding the sunset spot and we got lost again. Le sigh.
It was bedtime after we made it back because tired. (That is a terribly formed
sentence. Forgive me. 2AM in an airport is not my best time.)
We awoke early in the mornin’ to see the best sight in all of Florence.
We ate a quick breakfast of pastries and then journeyed to the Academia,
another museum. We started off learning about old-time musical instruments
because they have great names (Hurdy-gurdy. That’s a thing.) and we could sit
and enjoy the music. Everything else after was religion-y and sculpture-y, good
but not excellent until we saw it. The David was easily the best piece of art
in Florence. There were unfinished Michelangelo sculptures leading up to it, so
you can really appreciate what a genius he was. I wasn’t allowed photos of the
real thing, so I have some with a fake David we found in a piazza. He is less
cool. Sorry, fake David.
We stared at him (What can I say? He’s an attractive statue) for a long
while and then left to do something we couldn’t in Rome: ENJOY FREE TIME. I
missed you so! So I am too excited for the Do Nothing part of traveling, and
Rome was great but absolutely exhausting. Sitting in our room napping and
talking with our Canadian roommates was a great change of pace. Katie and I
lazed for a few hours and later meandered around (window shopping for our
engagement rings) until it was time to eat again.
We went out to a great place that was in Katie’s guidebook and had one
of my favorite meals and it stood out even with all the pasta I’ve eaten in the
last week and a half. On a whim, we bought a bottle of champagne from a store
after dinner and took it down by the river to chat and relax. The night was
excellent and we decided to head back and call it a night.
The night changed for the more exciting when we got back. We had met a
guy, Lee, from our hostel and Alice (or Alex? Katie and I still aren’t sure
which), who both wanted to go out for the night. We headed to a couple of bars
which meant I had a grand total of one bright-pink passion fruit margarita.
Poor Lee, drinking a pink margarita and getting told he could be “one of the
girls.” We bar hopped until we found a place with some classic American music
(Don’t Stop Believin,’ much?) and stayed until it closed and then got gyros.
All in all, we were out until 4AM. We put the kibosh on waking up early the
next day to go to the food market.
Well, dear readers, we are almost done with my time abroad. Next post
will be about Cinque Terre and Venice and then…That is everything. Wow.
Stay tuned!
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