London Day 4

Hey guys,
I still haven't worked out my camera problem yet, but hopefully I can get that working soon. The picture I had from the last post was someone else's posted on facebook that I used.

Sunday started with a coach tour that program here hosted. Early in the morning we piled onto a bus with our tour guide, Sean the Scotsman. He was a cheerful guy with a love for animals and Justin Bieber, and we rolled around town as he explained each attraction to us. We also stopped a few times to take pictures at places. Our first stop was at Buckingham Palace, the traditional house of the British royalty since 1761. Huge, elegant and stately, we watched it from behind the iron gates that covered the property. Sitting outside the gate was a gigantic fountain decorated with mermaids (a reference to Britain's historical naval power) and crowned with a statue of Victory.

Buckingham Palace, with the fountain with Victory on the left side.

The flag over the palace indicates whether or not the Queen is home. The flag of England means she is away; the royal flag is flown whenever she is home. Not aware of this, I couldn't tell if the Queen was present, but one could see the famous Queen's Guard. Wearing their bearskin hats, they stood at attention on each corner of the Palace cradling assault rifles, occasionally patrolling the area in a precise manner. It was too early for us to view the Changing of the Guard ceremony, so we would have to return to this later.

Sure, this guy could easily kill me, but it's hard to feel threatened by a guy who reminds you of a Q-tip.

Getting back on the bus, our next stop was St Paul's Cathedral. This behemoth church is the largest of England, and is of course an Anglican church. Most British Christians are not actually Catholic. As you may know, they were principally a Catholic nation until 1534. King Henry VIII was trying to have children, but could not get his wife to conceive. Blaming her for this, he asked the Pope for a divorice, as he was the only person who could give permission for such a thing. The Pope refused. But Henry wasn't one to give up so easily, and created the Church of England, establishing the ruling monarch at it's head, to ensure he could get as many divorices as he wanted. This would come in handy since he eventually have six consecutive wives, several of which he beheaded for not being able to bear his children.

Henry the VIII; doesn't take "No" for an answer.

The current St Pauls has been a landmark in London since the 17th century, but during World War II it was almost obliterated. After Hitler conquered France, Great Britain was the only Allied country left in Europe. Believing that they were no longer a threat, he ordered the Luftwaffe to bomb Britain as he mobilized his armies east for the invasion of the Soviet Union. At first they attempted to bomb the Royal Air Force's bases, but finding this ineffective, Hitler ordered them to bomb London itself. For fifty-seven days and night, the skies of London were dark with Luftwaffe bombers. One of their main targets was St. Paul's itself, and Winston Churchill ordered it to be saved at all costs. Throughout the night, firefighters worked to put out fires, and bomb disposal teams dismantled a timed-explosive that had hit the cathedral itself.

The cathedral still rises above the smoke during the Battle of Britain.

By the time was fighting, the previously surrounding buildings have been demolished into smoldering ruins, but the cathedral still stood. The cost was high though, and twelve firefighters lost their lives. However, not every church was so lucky. Throughout the city one can see the hollowed shells of churches, that have since been turned into small flower gardens.

St Paul's Cathedral today.

A garden in the remains of a bombed church.

 Even Buckingham Palace was hit by two bombs, one of which detonated near the royal family.

We continued our tour along the London Bridge, and took some pictures with the Tower Bridge in the background, before we finished our journey back at our dorm rooms.

One interesting thing Sean pointed out was the names of many streets and places. The British are very proud of some of their historical victories, so it's really common to see places named Waterloo and Trafalgar. I think we should take some of their pointers. Maybe name someplace Yorktown.

After lunch we had free time, so I decided to head to the nearby British Museum.

The front of the British Museum. It wouldn't be a proper museum if it didn't have a Hellenistic entrance.

 Filled with archaeological treasures, the British Museum has been collecting priceless artifacts for centuries. We started in a wing with objects previously found in the Royal Collection. Everything from raw gems to Roman statues to a Egyptian sarcophagus covered the center and surrounding bookcases of this building. Objects could be found from nearly every ancient culture; you could find the canopic jars of mummies, which once held their organs, next to Roman helmets or stuffed animals, or even strange, mystical oddities brought from the "Mysterious East."

Walking along, I was looking into a display case when I heard a sudden sound behind me. As I turned, more sounds joined in. Right before me was a circle of people, holding sheet music, singing a song. I had just witnessed a flash-mob choir!

My father found a video of the exact event.

This is the best quality video, but you can't see me in it. I'm on the left on the camera person, hidden behind some singers.

This one is much lower quality but I pick myself out a few times in the far background. At 5:55 there is a singer in white with a white hat. To his left is bald man holding a camera, with a shiny belt buckle. On his left side is a blurry brown haired kid with a grey T-shirt. That's me!

The music was spectacular, the video quality cannot convey how well they actually sang, and the acoustics of that area was great. A certain crescendo was so magnificent it made us shiver. After the show, I was finishing up the display case I had been working on, while overhearing a conversation between a couple of the museum staff, who clearly had had no idea that it was going to happen. 

After this show, we decided that that was a good way to end that trip to the museum, making a point to return soon to continue where we left off.

London Days 2 and 3

Hello again,
My first full day of London dawned with a morning full of orientations. The main message of the first orientation was GO TO CLASS. Teachers are required to take attendance and report missing students to the UK border control. Missing classes too many times could make you eligible for exportation. The alcohol awareness meeting afterwards was kind of interesting though. Realizing that nothing would stop a bunch of students who were all legally allowed to drink, they pretty much just asked us to be safe and try not to take drugs as we drank.

In between this orientation and the next, I managed to work my way to a grocery store to pick up something for the next couple lunches. It shouldn't be too surprising that there aren't any Wal-marts, Costcos, or Publixes, so I looked up a place called M and S Simply Food, and walked about 15 minutes to find it along a busy street called Oxford.

The grocery store I went to.

One of the larger chains of grocery stores, it takes up several floors, selling things like clothing and cooking ware. Not realizing this, I rode up and down a few escalators looking confused, before I found the food section.

I had previously been to a smaller, slightly lesser quality store here already, but this one was fairly spacious. I thought I was going to be able to get in and out fairly quickly, but I had never realized just how dependent I was on brands. Being familiar with brands means you know whats good for your money. When you are staring at a aisle of chips (crisps) and are trying to pick just one, it can be a little unnerving to have so much choice, and no idea which to pick. One particularly interesting bit about shopping in London is that because of it's proximity to the other European countries, you get a much wider selection of cheap foods from other places. So it's pretty easy to pick out something like Belgian Eclairs or Italian Lasagna for cheap. It's also interesting to see what type of ready-to-serve meals they have. You can get something like a prepared sandwhich with prawns, or a heatable Fish and Chips or Cottage Pie meal. I picked up a cheap half loaf of crusty white bread, some sandwhich meat (they don't really have turkey here,) cheddar cheese with chives, condiments, lemonade, and some Scottish chocolate chip cookies.

The really difficult part about food compared to the states is the lack of preservatives. Europeans are very strict about keeping their food natural. For example, although many food in the U.S. is biologically engineered,  they've completely banned the import of such products. They also don't have food preservatives, so food goes bad quickly. I'm fairly sure everyone didn't notice this fact while purchasing, and ended up buying a little bit too much food at once. One guy here bought a box of pita bread, that said it expired within 24 hours of opening it. So you need to buy food for only a few days, and come back again in another couple of days. This can kinda be a pain with the amount of times you visit the store, but at least it's in walking distance.

After I dropped off my food, I went on a practical walking tour lead by some of the graduate students working here. They showed us places to get phones, food, and send mail. They also showed us some of the nearby sights and shops through Soho and Covent Gardens. We also stopped at a nearby market in Covent Gardens.

Covent Gardens.

 It was a pretty bustling place; a comedy act was performing a routine, costumed performers took pictures with tourists for coins, and merchants sold small goods and produce outside of stores. We stopped and had some cookies from a store called Bens, and they just might of been the best cookies we ever had.

After our practical walking tour, my flatmates decided to see Big Ben's tower, and I decided to come along as well. After navigating through streets with names like Bloomsbury and Shaftsbury, we found ourselves in Trafalgar Square.

Trafalgar Square is undoubtably one of the most famous places in London. It was dedicated to one of the most important battles Britain ever won, at the Battle of Trafalgar Cape in 1805. There, Admiral Nelson defeated the combined fleet of Spain and France. Nelson's tactics completely devastated their armada, without losing a single ship (though Nelson perished in the fighting.) This left Britain with the most powerful Navy in the world at the time, and Admiral Nelson, although he died, became a war hero. The center of the square is dominated by an enormous column supporting a statue of the Admiral, with four lions sitting at the base. We ended up climbing these lions and taking some pictures.

                                           

                                                    Us straddling one of the lions on the pedestal. I'm on the far left.

  

 

Admiral Nelson.

                                                   
It's also the site of a giant clock, counting down the time til the start of the Olympic games next year.

Sadly, there weren't any fireworks when I saw this.

Surprisingly, a smaller statue stands along the side of the square of George Washington. Donated by Virginia, it stands upon soil imported from America, honoring Washington's declaration that he would never step foot upon British soil again.

George Washington.

Continuing South, we passed by several of the more important buildings of Britain that I cannot remember, until we hit Big Ben. Big Ben isn't actually the name of the clock tower, but rather the bell inside of the tower attached to the Palace of Westminister. However, it had begun to rain on us, so we didn't spend too much time here, and found a nearby bus back to our street.

A menace to anyone who wishes to jaywalk.

Buses are plentiful through all of London. Classic red double-deckers have regular stops throughout all of London, making a cheap, clean and efficient system of transport. Our program had given us special cards called Oysters that gave us discounted tickets on public transportation through the city, with some money already added to each card. So we swiped our cars and sat on the top level, enjoying our dry ride until our stop arrived.

At this point, everyone was starving. My flatmates wished to go eat in Chinatown, but I wanted to eat some real English food, so I decided to head to a local pub. Called the Museum Tavern, it sat right outside the British Museum, only a few minutes walk from our flats. Although it's location meant that it was potentially full of tourists, I hoped that because it was several hours after closing time, that it wouldn't be too crazy.

Inside shot of the pub.

The bar was packed with locals. Looking a bit confused, the bar manager instructed me that the only way to get a seat would be to snag one as someone left. I sat down at the bar when a space opened up, and ordered Bangers and Mash with half a pint of ale. While waiting for my food, I met Simon, a local Londoner, and Olga, from Barcelona. They had headed to the pub after work that Friday, and so we chatted until I got my food and sat at a recently vacated table. Bangers and mash are simply sausage on to of mashed potatoes draped gravy and onions. It wasn't particularly creative, but hearty all the same. After eating, I talked to them a little more. Both of them were extremely nice and helped me with some questions I had about London and pub etiquette. As it got late, I left and walked back to the flat and called my father, before heading to bed.

Day 3

Saturday began with a optional walking tour about the history of the neighborhood. Being unable to pass this up, I met one of the local staff members, and a small group of us followed her through the area. Originally this had all been countryside. At first a church had setup a hospital up here for lepers, well out of the city limits. Eventually  the rich, bored with the city, decided to start buying houses out here. The most prestigious houses were along the squares. Although they are now parks with lush trees and flowers, they used to be bare gravel with perhaps a statue in the middle. This was intended to draw the viewers eyes to the nobles and their houses, rather than anything else.

Bedford Square, right behind where I live. This used to all be lovely gravel.

A statue of Gandhi in the Tavistock Square. It's kind of a park dedicated to peace, there is also a tree nearby dedicated to Hiroshima.

These houses were also fancier that houses outside of the square; these changes were noticeable even compared to houses just barely off the square. They also pointed out how the colors of the bricks could be quite dark; this was due to the soot left from chimneys releasing the smoke of coal fires. Bits of yellow poked through the swathes of black to betray the presence of the original paints of the house. It was with the Clean Air Act that this pollution was begun to get cleaned. We also learned a little of the Great Fire of London of 1666. After devastating the city, Parliament passed several strict construction regulations. It was because of these that the exteriors of buildings could only be made of brick, roofs were made of tile rather thatch, and that buildings could not hang over the street. Although made centuries ago, these regulations are still in place today. In fact, the only wooden building in the UK is the Globe Theater (one of Shakespheare's theaters, rebuilt after it was burned down.)

After lunch, we participated in brief scavenger hunt set up by the school. It required us to both run around the city and answer some brief trivia questions. The prize was a free dinner, but we unfortunately we lost to a group with a member who had done the same hunt the previous semester. Regardless, I decided that I was in the mood for fish and chips, and looked up a semi-nearby place with a good rating. It was about an half an hour's walk, but it was interesting to enter a new region of town. Called Marylebone, it seemed to be a much richer part of town. I saw a few Aston Martins and Bentleys on the walk in. The place itself was kind of pricey but it was still good food. Fish seems to imply a couple different types of white meat fish, usually haddock and cod, but they also included skate (like a stingray.) I ordered fried haddock with a side of chips and mushy peas, apparently another traditional side for this meal.

The Golden Hind. Has pretty good fish and chips, but not as cheap as I would like.

 By the time I got back home it was kind of late so I relaxed for the rest of the evening, so I could get ready for class.

Tomorrow I hope to write up Sunday and maybe Monday. Hopefully I'll have caught up with my days pretty soon here.

London Day 1!

Hello everyone,

I finally finished up my week in Rome, and will begin trying to catch up with the last couple days I've been spending in London. I've been trying to find a way to add photos from my camera to my PC. I just went out and bought a SD card adaptor but I haven't gotten it to work. I'll see if I can borrow someone elses later, but for now I'll live with google images.

Early last Thursday, we woke up, caught the train, and I entered the Fiumincio Airport. Compared to the airports back home, this was kind of bare, but I worked my way over to the terminal to catch my flight.

The airplane was filled with small Italian children, who enjoyed screaming at every movement of the plane and filled the time in between each of these moments by kicking my seat. I was thrilled to spot the British countryside after three hours of this. After going through customs, I somehow managed to find my way onto a train to Paddington Station. The train was fantastic, providing free stable Wifi. In Rome, Wifi was pretty rare, never free, and never ever reliable. So I enjoyed being able to use my laptop on the brief 15 minute ride to the station. After arriving, I flagged down a quaint taxi, and took in the sights of my new temporary home as he whisked me through London.

A typical British taxi. You'll find these all over the place.

Being an inexperienced traveler, my mind quickly began to compare Rome and London as my sleep addled, starving brain processed what I saw. Despite being only a few hours apart, these two cities were worlds apart. The roads on Rome were hectic and volatile; London was much more civilized, despite driving in the wrong side of the road. The roads were well paved, and the buildings lining the road were tidy and kept in a strict line, with one never rising above the other. Each were made of brick,s ranging from a white or pale yellow to a dirty black, and tiny red chimneys in neat little columns dotted each small roof. For whatever reason, this seemed like a very British way to build houses.

Example of houses near where I am staying.

The taxi drivers were fantastic as well; after my experience with the rip-off driver in Rome, this chauffeur whisked me through the streets while chatting to me. From what he told me, I learned that being a taxi driver here is no laughing matter. Apparently it takes a few years to get licensed, after memorizing every region, road, street, and pub of this vast city. A native of London, he dropped me off with a slip of paper with the name of a local pub with good traditional meat pies.

I entered the main reception and received a key to my new flat. Our apartments included several buildings, which had been refitted to hold students. To increase transportation and floor space, our college had built underground tunnels and rooms. These were connected awkwardly to the buildings above, creating almost a labyrinth of tunnels running among several floors and buildings. It was easy to take a wrong turn or staircase and find yourself lost. one could almost expect to turn and run face to face with a Minotaur. However, this did allow the development of a small lecture hall, a library, classrooms, and several computer labs.The property was placed in a prime location in central London; normally, buildings around this area would go for millions of pounds. We were very fortunate to have this space. Behind this row of buildings was a small courtyard, with a set of stairs leading to a small conservatory and laundry room. Entering each building usually lead to a steep, winding staircase. Climbing up a few flights lead to my flat on one of the upper levels. This flat was one of largest, consisting of three bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a living room connected to a kitchen. Overall, it held 10 people, and as we learned later, no A/C. This was not a problem early on, as the weather required jackets, but it took no time for the heat to rise, and for us to begin to bake.

Outside view of the reception to our building. This doesn't do a good job of showing the tunnels below though.

Immediately after depositing my luggage, I went in search of food. A tiny restaurant advertising fish and chips was in eyesight, so I entered and was promptly seated. The plane had been in flight during lunch time, and I had avoided eating any airport food, so it was a few hours past noon before I had gotten the chance to get food. During this entire time, I had decided that fish and chips would be the "proper" way to have my first meal in Britain. As I sat with my meal, I noticed the irony that most of the locals were actually eating hamburgers, as I ate my fried cod. Perhaps the only people who really eat these traditional British meals are mostly tourists now. Again, stark differences from Rome persisted. Italians believe that meals should be eaten with as little interruption as possible. While this idea is nice, it results in a high level of difficulty of flagging down a waiter, even when you wish to do something simple like order or pay the check. This could be slightly frustrating, so it was a relief to have quick and efficient service that was always close at hand.

Surprisingly, Google had a picture of where I ate.

The rest of the day consisted of a brief orientation with our Program Head. A quirky British woman, she shared her experiences of traveling to America to the first time, and went through some basic information. Afterwards, most of the students and I unpacked, we went to a local grocery store and picked up some cheap sandwhiches, and had dinner. The rest of the night we wandered the nearby streets before returning back, but I'll add more about the neighborhoods in another post.

On a side note, someone asked me about the height of the Christian crypts. There was plenty of headroom to comfortably walk, but those who have difficulty dealing with small spaces might have found it unnerving. Still, this comfort is a fairly noteworthy accomplishment, as the average Roman at this time was only around 5 feet tall, so they definitely did not have to build such large tunnels. This also explains the seeminly small size of each alcove, if you had noticed that in the picture.

Rome part Due

This post is intended to continue where I left off in Rome, and to hopefully finish it up through London.

Day 1
Our first full day of Rome began with a visit to the National Museum of Rome. Here, we saw many sculptures of ancient Roman politicians and emperors, along with regular people and some Greek bronze work. We then visited a church built over the ruins of one of the largest public baths in ancient Rome. Ancient Romans were very hygenic, and the baths were accessible to pretty much anyone. Besides getting clean, they were also places to get other services such as haircuts. We then met up on our tour on the Crypts and Catacombs of Rome.

Like I stated before, Rome was very hygenic, and traditionally, bodies were forbidden to be buried inside the city. So instead, they were moved out to the countryside, and extensive crypts were dug out of the soil, composed of volcanic ash. This soil is very soft, but when exposed to air, hardens, making it very easy for building subturranean tunnels. Some stairs lead our tour to the first of many floors of this particular crypt. Along these tunnels, small alcoves would be dug, where bodies would be placed and covered with concrete. This was typically a practice of early Christians. Pagans would cremate their bodies, but these Christains believed that any day now, Jesus would come back and claim the dead to bring to heaven, and they thought they needed their bodies to get into heaven. Therefore, many of these concrete slabs would be decorated with simple, hidden Christian symbols. These crypts could go on for miles; this one in particular held up to half a million bodies.

The cuts along these hallways once held bodies.

Our next tour lead to a 12 century church, built on top of the ruins of several older buildings. Rome was no stranger to disaster; an earthquake could come and bulldoze down the entire town, and the city would just build on top of the rubble. This leads to what our tour guides enjoyed calling the "lasagna" effect; simply layers and layers of Rome built upon one another. Travelling down, we toured a 7th centrury church, and then a 2nd century pagan church below it, built on top of a 1st century public building.I found this to be pretty awesome, as if we were traveling back in time through the centuries.

We then visited the Capuchin crypt. The Capuchins were originally offshots of the Franciscans monks, who left because they believed that the order was not following their strict vows of poverty. So, when they finally received a church, they had to of course decorate it. And being poor, they decorated it with bones. Of about 4,000 monks. Entering this was like stepping into a horror film. Bits of bones were arranged in decorative shapes. Mummies, dressed in the rags of friars, bowed before their audience. Bones littered the walls, was built into arches, and hung down from the ceiling into chandeliers. In the last room, among the remains were the complete skeletons of three children. Two sat in the back of a room, with their grim grins, holding up another skull and winged hourglasses, to remind it's viewers of the swiftness of death. And on the ceiling, the skeleton of a young boy looked down, holding a scythe as a symbol of death. In his other hand he holds scales, symbolizing how God will weigh your good and bad deeds.This grim decor was not meant to frighten, but rather to remind it's viewers of the fragility of life; and that death could come at any second, it had no favorite age. A placard in the last room reads:

"What you are now we used to be;

What we are now you will be..."

The last room. Notice the child of death above.

In the alcoves along the wall are the mummified monks.

The child with the scythe and scales.

This ended our first day.

Day 2

Our second day consisted of a full day tour, to visit Pompeii, and it's executor, Vesuvius. A long bus ride out in the country revealed rolling hills, punctuated by mountains, covered in small red villages along it's side. When we arrived at Vesuvius, we found ourselves in the middle of a thick fog. Barely able to see in front of us, we climbed past a tiny shop and begin to climb the loose gravel up to the crater. Vesuvius today is a mere shell of it's former self; after the famous eruption in the 1st century, most of it's top was completely blown away. Today, only a crater remains at the center, but the volcano is still active. It's actually the most studied volcano in the world. Upon reaching the top, however, we found ourselves looking only into the fog; after about 15 feet of visibility, we could see nothing.

What we almost saw...

We had to make do with the picture on a postcard.

Before reaching Pompeii, we stopped in Naples to eat pizza. Pizza was actually invented in Naples. Supposedly, the modern day example of a pizza as a bread base, tomato paste, and cheese, was invented when the King and Queen were touring their country. Rich cities would give lavish gifts of gold and jewels, but Naples was a very poor city. So they decided to make food using the colors of the Italian flag, with the red tomato paste, the yellow mozzarella cheese (this region is famous for mozzarella) and the green basil. The Queen, Margherita, loved it so much, they named this pizza the Margherita pizza.

After dining upon pizza, we left for Pompeii. Pompeii, as you know, was destroyed by Vesuvius in the 1st century  and was covered in volcanic ash, preserving it until it's excavation more than a thousand years later. The streets, shops, houses, and amphitheaters are all remarkably well preserved, and it was thrilling to see how civilized the Romans built their city (although the city was actually founded by the Greeks.)

I thought this was one of the neatest pieces of Pompeii The streets were made to allow water to flow down them, so they could be cleaned. Those giant stones in the middle were to allow pedestrians to cross without getting wet. But they were also regulated so that chariots had enough wheel space to cross between the stones without getting stuck.

No doubt, however, the most famous relics of this city are it's inhabitants. Some of these poor people were casted in their last moments of agony, and plaster models remain today for us to view, including a dog that had been chained. These plaster casts even show bits of the skeletons of it's inhabitants, such as toe or finger bones.

Perhaps one of the funniest places was the brothel. Being a port town, it could be home to several languages. So in order to break the language gaps, rooms in a brothel were decorated with detailed pictures hanging above them. So a client could see which picture he wished to partake in, pick a girl (specially trained for this position) outside, and the door, and continue with his business. Surprisingly, this scenario is not often cited in the history books.

A picture above a brothel door.

So after a long trip back, we fell asleep.

Day 3

Day 3 was fairly unplanned, so we decided to explore the Roman forum and palatine hill before our tour on Wednesday. The Forum was the centerpiece of public Rome; senators, regular people, anyone could be found here. Although most of it is left only in ruins, with a little imagination, one can picture the place as it used to be. We also saw the temple of Julius Caesar, where he was cremated. Flowers are still placed on this place, by those who wish to honor his memory.

Flowers where Caesar was cremated.

We also saw some of the original Senate building, and even saw some ongoing excavations being carried out by archaeologists. One interesting area was the temple of the Vestal Virgins. A sacred flame was carried out in this temple by a collection of virgins, chosen around the ages of 6-10. Although they had strict rules, they were treated as goddesses. They were able to ride chariots inside the forum (which was a huge deal, especially for women,) and could even give amnesty to people who were about to be executed. After a few decades of service, they were freed and allowed to marry anyone they wished.

These statues are of leading Vestal Virgins, located in the temple.

Palatine Hill was the residence of most of the emperors of the empire. This area was huge, and many of the ruins that remain show just how powerful these people were. They were filled with expensive marble, fountains, gardens, its really hard to describe just how rich these people were. This place also oversees the Circus Maximus, where chariot races were performed, and Christains were martyered.

After we walked through some other areas, we spent the rest of this day relaxing, and slept for a good bit of the day.

Day 4

This day, we took a tour of the Vatican Museum, St. Peter's Cathedral, and Sistine Chapel. Vatican City is not part of any country; it represents itself as it's own country. Huge walls seperate it from the city of Rome, encompassing 110 square miles, and 800 citizens, including of course the Pope. They even print their own euros and stamps. After entering, we first toured the Vatican Museum. The Museum encompasses objects the Pope has deemed to be less important; regardless, we found ourselves in a hallway lined with rare Roman busts and statues, marble worth a fortune, and priceless tapestries. As you might know, many of the original Roman statues were originally in the nude. However, one of the popes decided that such display of genitalia was unclean, and as a result, many of these stone men became eunuchs.

One piece of the Vatican Museum that stuck out to me. Using modern methods, we can cut 3 centimeters in an hour of this priceless red marble. And they still aren't 100% sure what it was made to do.

Unfortuanately, everything in Vatican City can be changed at the whim of the Pope or other higher ups, and the Raphael hall we were supposed to view was closed. Instead, we quietly shuffled into Sistine Chapel. This infamous church is home to the ceiling done by Michelangelo. At the time, Michelangelo had not even begun to paint, but his talent was already beginning to shine. An already established painter, worried that Michelangelo's talent would surpass his own, recommended to the Pope that Michelangelo paint the ceiling. His hope was that Michelangelo would fail, and therefore be disgraced. However, Michelangelo took this as a challenge. After learning how to paint from his crew, he fired everyone but himself, and continued on his own. One can actually see how he improved his painting skills as he worked, when you view the ceiling from one end to the other. The Pope gave him instructions to paint from the 12 apostles, but Michelangelo secretly altered this, painting scenes from the Creation and Book of Genesis. It took four years for it to be completed, and the pope was so impressed, he was later asked to paint The Last Judgement, taking six years to complete.

The ceiling. The genesis paintings are in the middle.

The Last Judgment.. Jesus is in the middle, bringing the holy to heaven with his right hand, and banishing the wicked with his left.

After the awe-inspiring Sistine Chapel, we moved into St. Peter's Basilica. This church is often considered the greatest church in the world, and supposedly harbors the remains of St. Peter, the apostle of Jesus and the first Pope of the Catholic Church. Among the remains of Peter, it also harbors the holy relics of other saints, as well as the bodies of many Popes. Some of these Popes are kept in a glass coffin on the main floor, mummified, because they supposedly caused miracles after their death.

John Paul the II. Looks to me kinda like a creepy Santa Claus.

 St. Peter's was simply awe-inspiring; everything was covered in marble and gold. Building it took a hundred years to complete, it's so huge. It also hosts the giant dome of St. Peters, which one can climb, if they can climb the 515 steps to the top. Completing this does give you a marvelous view of the entire city though.

The dome.

Although Vatican City was very impressive, I found myself disappointed. The value of even the lesser items are priceless, and at a certain point, I begun to wonder why the Church valued buying more of these items rather than buying food for the hungry or medicine for the sick. I don't mean to insult any Catholics, but the amount of wealth was fairly disgusting, and I wonder how many less fortunate people died during the construction of the Basilica. I apparently wasn't the only one with these thoughts either. One Pope announced upon receiving his seat, that he would sell most of the wealth of Vatican City, that the Basilica was enough. He died several days after receiving his promotion, and some believe he was perhaps murdered because of these ideas.

After Vatican City, we looked at a few sites, and that summed up our fourth day.

Day 5

For those weary with my Rome stories, this is the final day of Rome. Today centered around a tour of the Colosseum, The Forum, and Palatine Hill. We began with the Colosseum. Although it was easily spotted during other points in our trip, walking into this behemoth can take your breath away. Obviously, it was used as a public arena, that could host animal hunts, battle re-enactments, and of course, gladiatorial games. The Colosseum is a mere shell of it's former self. Stone is most of what remains, as most of the original marble and other decorations were removed by plunderers of varying types. An earthquake also caused a huge chunk to collapse.However, multiple restorations have taken place, even by Mussolini. After it's use as an amphitheater, it was also used as a church, quarry, and even a fortress. Our tour even stopped by the lower level of the Colosseum. This area was used to setup games, as it was setup under the sand-on-lumber- stage above. Here, workers can hoist up participants like animals up to the top. It was also the site of one of the sewers beneath the building.

View from inside. The stones in the middle would have supported a wooden stage.

Our tour also lead us through the forum and Palatine Hill, but I included most of this information on the previous paragraph. This sums up my Rome Trip, thanks again to my lovely mother for going along with me. I'll add the first couple days of London later on. Let me know what you think.

Rome

Hello,
So this is my first time trying to write a blog. I was requested to blog about my time during the seven weeks I will be out of the U.S. and studying/vacationing for the last part of summer. I have zero idea if anyone will even care to read this, but it should be good for chronicling what happens to me anyways. If you have any suggestions or comments on this blog, let me know.

So my week consisted of two parts: The first week of Rome with my lovely mother, and the last six weeks in London, taking classes from my university. I'll spend my first blog outlining my Rome trip. Although I cannot remember day-by-day what I did, I'll condense it all into one giant post with different paragraphs on each subject. Also, because I like history, I will often add condensed versions to any particular sites I enjoyed. The history is off the top of my head, so let me know if I make any mistakes.

So first off, we obviously had to fly there. We took a flight to Hat'lanta airport, and spent a few hours waiting for the next flight to Rome. During this time we spent lunch in a food court, with a self-playing piano. I suppose that international flights would go through this terminal, and oh boy, you could see people going nuts over this magical piano. I watched a kid take several pictures and videos of the piano playing itself, with just the most fascinated look on his face.

Anyways, back to the topic. The flight was about 9 hours and we landed in Rome early on Friday, exhausted from the little sleep we had gotten on the flight. After catching a train right before we left, we chugged along the Roman countryside. It was a pretty bizarre mix of agricultural and urban areas; you would find fields of sunflowers, and then just a town right next to it. You got the feeling that this place was kind of behind in the times though; rooftops would be littered with hundreds of tv antenna, rather than satellite dishes or anything else. However, after a half hour ride to the terminal station, we arrived in Rome, and hailed a taxi to our hotel.

My first thoughts of Rome:
This city is utterly mad.

Cars were everywhere on the road. With seemingly little to indicate lanes, cars and scooters would add or subtract lanes as they pleased. Pedestrians would dash between crowds of cars as mopeds flew around. It seemed like this place operated by no set of rules, at least no clear ones. After dropping us off at the hotel, our taxi driver promptly asked for a much higher fare than it actually was, didn't give us change, and left us in the middle of the road.

We checked into our hotel, located on the second level of a building off the side of Via Cavour. A little old lady greeted us in a nicely decorated greeting room. Unfortunately we had arrived as the previous guests were leaving, and we would have to wait an hour for it to be clean. We decided to have our first proper italian meal.

The streets of Rome have tons of tiny side roads that branch off, leading to more tiny alleys crammed between streets. But in this tiny streets and roads, businesses flourished, advertising nearly everything under the sun. Bright signs would sit outside the doors of tiny shops advertising their wares, and oftentimes you could pass restaurants with tiny tables sitting outside, close to small shrubs and vines. It was fairly picturesque, and we stopped at a close one to order some lunch. The menu was in complete italian, and I found myself dredging the depths of my two semesters of Italian to explain to my mom just what everything was. But we worked through the menu and ordered some food. Unfortuanately, the food itself was not as nice as the view, and ended up being pretty bland. But we were so exhausted we paid the bill and left, returning to our hotel for a few blissful hours of sleep.

We woke up to our first evening in Rome. Having nothing planned, we decided to travel to the north side of Rome and walk through some places. We hopped aboard the nearby metro (subway.) Although it was quick, efficient, and cheap (a euro will buy you a ticket anywhere for the next 75 minutes,) it could also be crowded and dirty. I would guess the metro had weathered several decades, and it showed it; graffiti popped up on everything you could see. But after one train going the wrong way, we ended up in the Piazza del Popolo.

This expansive area is ringed by churches and two fountains oversee it on the western and eastern side, with a Egyptian obelisk covered with hieroglyphs placed in the middle of a square. The Romans, after visiting Egypt, took several of these obelisks back with them, and placed them in important areas. This area was important because it served as one of the first points one could enter the proper city of Rome.

Piazza del Popolo. Notice the obelisk in the center. A tiny cross was added to the top of every obelisk at the order of a Pope.

After watching a wedding leave a nearby church, we decided to look inside. From the outside, it looked like nothing more than a hole in the wall, but the inside was amazing. There are tons of churches in Rome, and all manage to look impressive. Marble covers every column and wall, ancient paintings and frescos decorate the walls, and holy items are covered in gold. These churches usually aren't exactly as ancient as from the Roman times; the modern day churches you see are usually built atop the ruins of previous churches. After marvelling at the church, we continued south, stopping at the mausoleum of Augustus. You are probably aware of Julius Caesar, but you might not know of his nephew, Octavius. After Caesar was assissinated, Octavius fought and killed Marc Antony to take control of the Empire. Augustus was considered to be a great, kind, and wise emperor, and lived a humble life upon Palatine Hill. Therefore, he received a gigantic mauseloum at his death, though it could not be accessed.

We then headed to the Trevi Fountain. This fountain is monstrously huge. Being about 60 feet wide, it gushes fresh water from nearby hidden aqueducts, while the sculptures celebrate the God of Water, representing it in every form possible.

The Trevi Fountain. Apparently 3,000 euros a day are thrown in here.

After learning about the tradition of throwing a coin into the fountain in the superstition that you will return to Rome again, we tossed some pennies into the water and headed to the Piazza del Spagna, or the Spanish Steps. This huge staircase leads up to the ancient Spanish embassy, one of the oldest embassies in Rome. At the step's feet was another fountain, but with access points to drink out of it. The Romans were originally inspired by the Greeks in their design of public buildings, but they additionally made them functional as well; thats why many fountains dot the area for free drinking. It's all safe water, brought in by some of the same aqueducts built ages ago.

The Spanish Steps, somehow not covered in tourists. Note the small platform in the fountain, right below the edge. This can be used to drink the water flowing out of the hole along the side.

After this, we left to go back to the hotel and get some well needed sleep.

This ended up being longer than I expected, so I'll post this now, and add the rest of the days later.