Vatican City, Italia

The next morning we woke up really early, around 6am to head off to the Vatican City. We were the first in line, but had to wait around an hour for the gates to open. Once inside, we all shared an audio guide (something we actually did for almost all of the museums and such) to hear about the exhibits.

When you first walk in is a giant courtyard featuring a large pinecone, designed (like almost everything famous in Italy) by Michelangelo.

We passed through years and years of Catholic history from Pope’s artistic collections to their actual apartments designed with beautiful artwork all around the walls. I really enjoyed the hallway of the Maps which featured tapestries and maps of ancient Italian territories from long ago.

At the end of the exhibit, which takes about 4 hours to walk through at a pretty brisk pace with enough time to see everything relatively thoroughly, we found ourselves in the magnificent Sistine Chapel. I was completely mesemerized by the beauty that Michelangelo created with this chapel. At the base layer surrounding the building is a giant painting that creates the illusion that you are standing next to a wall covered in drapery/curtains. The next layer depicts the major stories of Jesus’ life from the New Testament.

Then a series of 6 windows per side with portraits of the most famous Popes (up until around 1500) in between. On the ceiling is the greatest part of which I stared the longest… a series of Old Testament stories including God creating Man (Adam and Eve) and Moses. The back wall, okay I take it back, I stared at the back wall the longest, shows Michelangelo’s depiction of the Last Judgment. The detail is incredible. He painted the ceiling around age 35 and the wall around age 60, and you can see how his ideologies and religious view points morphed and matured through the years. There were angry Italian guards who ran around saying “SHHH, no talking. And NOOO PHOTO. NOO PHOTO!” So, no photos were allowed, but I sneaked one just of the ceiling. So enjoy that!

Afterwards, we went to Old Bridge for gelato. MM and met our friend Leslie to visit Saint Peter’s Basilica. This is the most magnificent church in the entire, no exaggeration, ENTIRE WORLD! I absolutely loved every moment of it, and why shouldn’t it be the best church in the world, it is the center of Catholicism in Vatican City, Rome! It is where the Pope himself gets to perform mass. I would have loved to see him perform mass, but sadly we weren’t able to. The lines are unreal when he does too. Anyways, we climbed the Dome up to the top. It was quite the trek but we had breathtaking, panoramic views of all of Rome.

We could see St. Peter’s Square, where the Pope makes weekly addresses, the Colosseum, Vatican City, and all the surrounding buildings. I loved the view, however the climb itself was interesting… It was very narrow and wind-ey, or as some would say, claustrophobic.

We spent hours in the actual Basilica, staring at the dome and the ornate carvings and paintings around the entire church.

There was a stream of light coming in over St. Peter’s tomb and hitting his Papal Throne (St. Peter is the first Pope of the Catholic Church, named by Jesus Himself), which felt unrealistically holy and beautiful. The only word to describe this church is utterly majestic. I was completely awestruck and taken aback by the beauty of this building and the holy sense that reverberated from every wall. We headed downstairs to the Papal Catacombs, which was weird.

They’re the tombs of the deceased popes, each of which above ground and greatly decorated out of huge marble slabs. Pope John Paul II’s tomb was the 2^nd largest to St. Peter’s, and had a huge surrounding of spectators, followers, people praying, and many crying. I really enjoyed St. Peter’s tomb as it looked up from the basement catacombs and into the above dome, altar, and throne.

Roma, Italia!

We embarked on our fall break adventure to Italia. All I have to say is I LOVE ITALY! This blog won’t do justice to the 800, yes… 800, pictures that I took while we were there for ten days.

Julie and I made the decision to get a Eurail pass and take a train to Italy. It seems hard to justify this 17 hour journey by train to Rome, but it actually worked out well. It was so much cheaper than flying, and after our 2 overnighters in Charles De Gaulle on those horrible seats, we decided we’d rather sleep on a bunker train. Now that was quite the experience!! It was about 1/3 the size of a Cal Poly dorm room and slept six adults. It was pretty insane, but I got 5 hours of sleep which is pretty decent for an overnight train! We spent 4 wonderful days in Rome and every minute was soaked in sightseeing and fun.

We arrived in Roma Termini really early Friday morning. We went straight to our hostel which was closeby. That’s where we reunited with the wonderful Nick Manuele! We hadn’t seen him since Oktoberfest in Munich, and he’s been backpacking all over Europe. His travels are really cool too and he’s got some great pictures of eastern Europe.

Right away we headed to the Colosseum. We stopped along the way and ate our first slice of delicious pizza from a hole in the wall restaurant.

This man told us in English it was one of the best places to eat so we did well. It’s funny because most Italians speak with a lot of emotion, so it always seems like they’re yelling at you. It was especially good that the only words we knew were dirty words or “Scuuuzy” (excuse me) and Grazi (thank you)! Last month, when Julie and I saw Inglorious Bastards in Belgium, we loved the part where Brad Pitt and gang pretend to speak Italian and walk up through the aisles of Nazis saying “scuzy, scuzzy”, while bowing. And thus we said that while bowing all throughout Italy. And laughed the entire time…

Okay back to the Colosseum. We saw the outside but decided to take a tour of the Roman Forum first. I pretended to only speak French and try to get the EU student discount, but the ticket man saw right through it. Darn! The forum, Palatine Hill, and ancient city was incredible. I can’t even fathom how these ruins are still intact.

It was entertaining to see a flip book of what the city looked like 2000 plus years ago compared to now, but seriously, the ruins were an unbelievable sight. According to Roman legend, Palatine Hill was home to the she-wolf (like Shakira’s song) that was mother to Remus and Romulus, the “founders” of Rome.

I really liked the Arch of Titus because we had learned about all the war scenes etched into its inside arch in my art class. All around the forum and all of Rome were water taps that run constantly and boast some of the clearest, purest, coldest water in the world. Water taps were so refreshing and amazing- I wish they were everywhere!

We explored the outside of the Colosseum, but since Nick had already gone the day before, Julie and I decided to return the next day.

I loved the Colosseum. I was thinking about Marcus Aurelius and Gladiator the entire time. That was such a good movie, being there made me want to watch it again! My favorite aspect of the ruins itself were the underground corridors where they would house and then bring the lions and other exotic animals into the stadium. They would live the lions in the pitch black so that they were unable to adjust to the light immediately, giving the Gladiators the first advantage in a battle. Fights also sometimes included rhinoceros, which is like 300 status if you ask me. The underground labyrinth was so incredible. Honestly these ruins were the greatest in all of Rome. It was crazy to be standing in a stadium that once housed 50,000 spectators some 2000 years ago.

We headed off to explore.

First, we saw the Fontana di Trevi and threw in some euro-coins for wishes. That’s where we had our first (of many many many) delicious gelato. I LOVE GELATO… just thought I’d throw that out there! We met up with our friend Leslie who goes to school in Rouen and pretty much traveled around with her the next few days.

The Pantheon was afterwards, which is a temple made of a giant Dome. It is an architectural phenomenon since the roof is a myriad of perfect arches, ribbed vaulting, and is also a sun dial. We heard a choir performing and the reverberations were really cool to listen to.

On the last Sunday of every month, The Vatican Museum is free to the public. The clocks fell back this night, and we didn’t think our cell phones would automatically adjust, so we changed them. However they did adjust, and we were confused by the 24 hour clocks, etc, so long story short, by the time we actually arrived at Vatican City, we were looking at 4 hour lines.

So, we decided we’d pay the next day and arrive extremely early to avoid the lines. Instead, we wandered all of Rome.

We saw the Spanish Steps, tons of churches and museums, shopping areas, and The Medici Palace. We stopped at this exquisite Italian bakery with bread shaped like animals: turtles and alligators.

We each got some cookies and pastries for lunch! We went back to just outside Vatican City for extremely delicious pizza, and then met up with Lindsay Hooper, who I went to Mullen with. It was so fun to see another familiar face, especially since I hadn’t seen her in so long! She’s studying abroad in Rome and coincidentally, it was her birthday!!

So we went to this place called Old Bridge Gelateria, which is well known for its gigantic 2 euro scoops of Gelato. It was literally the biggest amount of gelato I’d ever seen… and eaten!! This was our first time here at Old Bridge, though most definitely not the last!

Rome is so rich in history and information. We spent a few days there, but I would return in a heartbeat to explore the ruins and museums in greater detail. It is truly one of the most historically phenomenal places in all the world (though I haven’t seen the whole world, I def. feel confident in this statement)… Though as I learned throughout Italy, it is great for history, but only good for food. The Good stuff comes later. J

Paris with Em J & Versailles with Julie

I went to Paris to spend the weekend with EmJ. It was one of the most wonderful weekends in the world, something we'd both imagined since we began French class together some 6 years ago (wow we're getting old!!).

So technically, this was 2 1/2 weeks ago, but I'm just a bit behind schedule since I’ve been away from computer and internet for just about that long. Sorry family! I took the quick one-hour train into Paris and met Em at her house. We were supposed to go to this Chocolate Festival, but I’d had a 2 week stomach flu and wasn’t really feeling ingesting so much chocolate. But writing this now, that sounds fabulous. Instead we headed to Champs Elysee, singing the song the entire time ( Aux Chaps Elysees, aux champs elysees, au soleil, sous la pluie… il y a tout ce que vous voulez aux champs elysees!!- this translates basically to On this Street, in the sun or the rain, there is everything you could want here!)

We stopped at La Duree, which is supposed to have the best Macaroons in all of Paris. Macaroons here aren’t like anything you’d have had in the states. Basically there is every flavor imaginable and they’re dyed to match these. The outside is hard when you tap it, but the second you bite into it is so creamy smooth, almost like jelly but not. Okay, so clearly, I really enjoyed these macaroons. We ate them under the Arc De Triomphe, which is pretty much just an arc but is epically famous.
We headed over to La Notre Dame Cathedral. I learned about it in art class and so I thought it was even more beautifully created when I saw it. Buttressing holds it up, which you can notice in the photo behind Em and I. They almost look like long ‘spider’ legs extending from the building, which actually support it. It’s funny, we wandered around “looking” for Quasimoto, the name of the Disney Character who plays the hunchback in the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

That night, we met up with our friend Stephen who we went to Mullen with. He is studying in the south of France and we all went to see the Eiffel Tower twinkle at nighttime. It’s one of the most fun things to do on an evening in Paris. . . though very touristy, its always a blast!!

The next day, I went to The Palais de Versailles. This is one of the most magnificent palaces in the world, built by Louis XIV. This extravagant palace is full of overly ornate apartments, gold embroidered buildings, great gardens, and blasting fountains. The entire palace grounds is hundreds of acres large and so much money was spent on the palace itself that afterwards, the King ordered that the books be burned with the amount of money used. The imbalance of money and extravagance actually sparked the French Revolution as the commoners were outraged. In the picture with Julie and me (spiral staircase in the background) is right outside Marie Antoinette’s Hamlet, where she would pretend to be a common milk maiden. This was by far my most favorite area as the cottages were so quaint. The gardens were magnificent too and they play orchestras of music at certain times when they put the fountains on. There is a time schedule when certain fountains turn on and display their glory… probably because they’re so expensive to run. At a time when Louis the 14^th was out of money, he would invite guests over and plan their route and turn on the fountains as they passed them to make it look like they were constantly running. The day was great, but definitely a major damper because of the huge downpour of rain that we were stuck in about 1 mile from the main building. So we were soaked running through the gardens in chilly Paris, but it was still a great day!

On my last day in Paris, we went to the Louvre.

We get in for free as students studying in France. Pretty nifty… I could spend hours and hours in the Louvre. I’m usually not the biggest museum fan, but there are periods and pieces from all over the world and time frames. Obviously, I saw good ole’ Mona Lisa. She’s actually very small, which I’d been told but not a giant piece by any means. We did a lot of the typical Venus de Milo, Oath of Horatii, Coronation of Napoleon, etc. but my most favorite wing was the Egyptian wing. We saw mummies from years ago, even animal mummies- which were so intriguing! Em and I spent hours in the Louvre and spent some time journaling and stuff. It was awesome to be able to spend so much quality time with her! I loved it!

Monet's Garden

Claude Monet, famous for his impressionistic paintings, lived in Giverny, which is in between Rouen and Paris. We made the quick day trip into Giverny and walked around through the gardens. It was crazy to be in the garden's wehre Monet began his masterpieces which grace museums throughout Paris and the world. Oddly enough, there are no original pieces at the gardens?

We saw Monet's home, which was really colorful and old fashioned. His dining hall was bright canary yellow and his kitchen robin's egg blue. From his house there is a panoramic view of his entire gardens below and you can barely spot in the distance his lily garden and Japanese bridge (seen to the right!)

Check out the website if you're interested in learning about it a bit more... I even attached the English version... haha http://giverny.org/gardens/fcm/visitgb.htm

I've attached a bunch of photos for you to share in the beauty, but overall, it was just a beautiful day full of blossoming flowers despite the nippy cold wind and autumn October weather.

London London...

A Land where they all sound like they’re from London!

Julie and I decided to take the infamous Chunnel underground through the English Channel to get to London. As we headed off to London, I couldn’t help but dance to songs in my head like “London Bridge” by Fergie and then bop my head to childish songs about London Bridge falling down.

Upon arriving in London, we promptly ordered a cup of delicious Earl Grey. They may not be notoriously recognized for their food, but their tea is delicious everywhere. We hopped on the Tube and then immediately noticed on the streets that the cars drive on the “wrong” side of the road, or the opposite of everything we’re used to.

We were lucky enough to get to stay with my Grand Big Bro (Michelle’s Big Bro) Kristen, who is working abroad for Apple in London. She had a great apartment not far from the center of the city and was so nice to let us stay with her! We had so much fun with Kristen too! Family line reunion!

Julie and I took off to check out the London Tower. If you’ve seen the movie, the Other Boleyn Girl, this is where the Natalie Portman character was held before her beheading. We crossed the Tower Bridge, walked past the real London Bridge, and got to see the original Globe Theatre where Shakespeare’s first plays were! I knew you would have loved it, Dad. We visited the Tate Modern Museum, and it only reminded me how little appreciation that I have for modernist artwork. Impressionism I can manage, but some of this artwork was like a thick rope artistically placed, or a sheet folded over to represent … well I’m still not quite sure. We had fun poking around at the bizarre displays, but left to get fish and chips, which was much more satisfactory!! We also passed St. Paul’s’ Cathedral at night- a beautiful sight! On a side note, every company goes out on Friday nights for cocktails. Every pub was stuffed with businessmen and women socializing… it was a pretty cool environment.

Kristen gave us a tour of Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, China town and the Broadway Show streets. The next day, we went to Borough Market, which had samples of Stilton Cheese (Chef Mom/EJ!), olives, Mulled Wine (like hot cider in Wine Form), and sweets. We stopped at Monmouth Coffee which filter drips each coffee per cup and had a long “queue” around the block.

We then headed to see the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, and Big Ben. All classical tourist locations. We also got to see Westminster Abbey, but we didn’t get to walk in as the last service had already finished. We walked by Hyde Park and past the War Museums and through another smaller park full of hundreds of ducks, willow trees, and a house that I swear a hobbit lives in!

Though we didn’t watch the changing of the guard, Buckingham Palace was still quite the site to see! That evening we visited Brick Lane, the Indian street in London (the Indian population is really high in London). I had the most delicious Mango Lassai and a huge variety of Indian Food, though we realized that Brick Lane isn’t exactly the safest neighborhood to visit after sunset and quickly left after dinner.

Next morning, we went to Portobello Market, which is pretty much like a swap meet/flea market. The walk down to the market is through an antique street fair in one of the cutest neighborhoods- Notting Hill!

After that, we headed to Abbey Road, which was actually a challenge to get to due to Tube shutdowns, so we took a Double Decker bus! I swear I thought we were going to hit about a hundred trees, and we definitely hit a couple branches. Abbey Road is adjacent to Abbey Rd Studio where the Beatles recorded their album + did their album cover. We tried to recreate it, haha, though we’re obviously only two.

Before heading back to Paris, we tried obviously to go to Hogwarts from King’s Crossing. We got half our cart through Platform 9 ¾ though Dobby must have been there closing the passageway (intense HP reference… only true fans will understand it. Yes I’m a massive loser) so instead, we just hopped back on the Chunnel and came home.

Madrid and Barcelona!

España!!

Madrid

.... and at the end of our Paris stay, we headed off to Madrid!! I have been so lucky to go to Madrid already this year for spring break with Kira... and will be going again with Kira in November, but I have to say, it is probably my favorite European City besides Paris!

We arrived in Madrid and walked around Sol & ate Empanadas... I remembered a lot of the city. For whatever reason, the Bear Statue, which is the symbol of Madrid's DT Sol was being cleaned and had been moved! And the center of Sol AKA the center of Madrid had been roped off for replastering or something. So things were a bit off, but thats ok!

Julie and I met up with Travis (TC) who goes to Cal Poly - he's in our Fraternity but is studying abroad in Madrid. TC let us stay with him! And we met his 2 roommates, one from Korea and the other from San Diego, CA. We quickly got ready and headed out to Cien Montaditos, for Euro Bocadillos (sandwiches) which was introduced to me by Kira and the girls... like everything we did on this trip, introduced by them. We randomly ran into our friend Ross who goes to Cal Poly and is studying in Valledolid, Spain outside the Plaza Mayor! Then finally got to see Mollie, Elizabeth, Brian, and Casey… friends from Mullen and St. Vincents (crazy huh?) at a bar with a lot of international (English speaking) students.

The next day, we walked from the Plaza Mayor and stopped in Sol. I showed Julie Kira’s apartment, the Pina Coloda juice box that I love, and had Paella across from her apartment. We got postcard stamps where Kira showed me (for all of you that got postcards only from Madrid, its because it is the only place I knew where to get stamps and what the post boxes looked like) and headed off to Retiro Park.

We stopped at the Prado for free student admission, but all my art history seems to have slipped out of my brain since arriving in Europe. I remember which painting was Sarah’s and remembered the Midget painting as well. That night, we went to downtown Madrid, and all I could think of is All that she wants! I love Sol, it really never sleeps!

Our treat the following day was Churros con chocolat, and then we wandered the city parks around Palacio Real before heading to El Tigre, which is the most vivacious, crammed, and delicious tapas bar! Free tapas with every drink! It was a fun reunion night again full of salsa dancing at El Sol and catching up with old friends. All I have to say is that I LOVE Madrid.

Barcelona!

Headed over to Barcelona (pronounced Bar THa Lona with a lisp) which was a really quick plane trip. Funniest thing was the flight attendant reading instructions in English, though it was clear she spoke no English, so it sounded like pure, slurred, Spanish accented jibberish. That’s probably how I sound when I try to speak Spanish though!

Once In Barcelona, we went to our hostel and headed straight down La Ramblas. There was a huge festival going on that weekend, so all the street performers were out past 2am. We had the most delicious traditional tapas meal and were so happy about that! We even stopped at a full on concert, but the only band that had played that I recognized was The Hives (we missed them by about an hour sadly).

The next day Julie and I rented beach cruiser bicycles and biked all around the city. We went up to La Sagrada Familia, Gaudi’s infamous church.

He began building it around 1880 and designed the most unbelievable archways with both religious and architectural hidden meanings. It continues under construction after his mapped out instructions, with plans to be complete only after 2030.

The exterior of the building is full of hidden crevices with intricately detailed statues and artwork. The front looks like it is artistically melting into religious sculptures in a bizarrely interesting way. The interior and exterior are so phenomenal that I would love to return to see this masterpiece in 20 years!!

Gaudi is a legend in Barcelona, but an interesting fact, he was killed in an accident after being hit by a tram. Trams are now forbidden in Barcelona!

After our bike ride around the city, we headed down to the beach! The beach was beautiful of course as the Mediterranean is impossibly crystal clear. On our way back from our beach nap, we accidently stumbled across a huge wine and food tasting festival where we had dinner and spent most of the evening.

We also got to see the Columbus Memorial at sunset. It is a giant monument of Columbus pointing from Spain (where he left on his journey) to North America for one of the most historically significant discoveries.

When we came back to the hostel, we met a bunch of people in our hostel/ room for awhile before heading out for Pina Coladas at a local bar! Pina Coladas = my favorite drink of all time, so I was a happy gal!

It was a great trip to Spain overall. I’m going to have to learn Spanish since I’ll definitely be living in Spain for some point in my life!

Paris, le premier fois

And so we went to Paris for the first real time, with many more trips already planned. We were only there for about two days, but just long enough to catch up with my love Em J! It was a high school reunion plus I love her so much it was great to see her!!

Anyways, Julie and I went to see the Eiffel Tower at night. Above is the light show which goes off every hour and people from all around the world come to see! It was beautiful! And I was scammed into getting an eiffel tower statue that lights up (or maybe I just really wanted one... haha)!!

Then the next day we explored some Parisian markets. We stopped at Montmartre, enjoyed crepes and fun cobble stoned streets line with artists, and then saw an entire view overlooking all of Paris!!

We went to Le Sacre-Coeur, one of the most beautiful churches in the world. I wanted to go to confession there but was worried I'd have to speak 100% in french, and so I freaked out and decided not to. Maybe they'll speak English

at the Vatican? Anyways, this church interior had breath-taking stained glass and sculptures. The gold foiling on the halos of the angels and saints was mesmerizing and shine so magnificently! I cannot explain how much I loved this church, we just sat forever taking in its beauty and holiness. (No pictures are allowed in the interior, so I can't share with you, I'm sorry!) As you can see, the building itself is breathtaking as well!!

Spent as much time as possible with my Em and then headed to the airport for another overnight-er...