We started our day at the Vatican. No biggie. I also figured out how to type an apostrophe on these keyboards. ''''''''. Yeah!
Anyway... The Vatican is pretty neat (to make a huge understatement). We got to go through the Vatican Museum, which has a wealth of historical artifacts, sculptures, busts, paintings, tapestries, etc. The first exhibit was of Ancient Egypt. That was incredible. I had never seen real hieroglyphics (except on the History Channel) and it makes you take a step back and apprecitate what an advanced civilization existed. We passed by burial goods (charms, scrolls, gold, you name it), some sarcophagi, and even a preserved mummy! There was a lot of information about how they lived, died and developed. the statues to their gods seemed endless. I could have easily spent an entire day looking around but we had our eye on the ultimate prize: the Sistine Chapel. The next exhibit was of the Romans. The time spent creating all of those statues and busts is inconceivable. Each one had an incredible amount of detail and the attention to proportion was something else. It was as if plaster was just placed over a real body. Some of them were a bit unnerving because they had pupils and were lifelike--in a marble-colored, stiff kind of way.
After what seemed like miles of walking we made our way toward the Sistine Chapel. Little did we know there were scores more to travers. We passed by beautiful tapestries depicting biblical events (all the tapestries made in Brussels curiously). There were also gian maps of Italy and its' provinces. Then, finally, we arrived. It was indeed a sacred place, not just for the religious but for anyone with an appreciation for art and architecture. No photography or talking allowed. The latter was not really an issue for when you walk into that astonishing work of Michaelangelo, all words are taken away. The only thing I knew about the art was the famous reaching out of god and man. Imagine my amazement seeing the whole thing. It was difficult enough trying to find that one image among the hundreds of others! It was such a beautiful sight I didn't even notice the strain in my neck from bending back to take it all in. Before we left a German lady told Mike we shoulc be cheeky and blend into one of the tour groups so we could get into St. Peter's Basilica. Boy was it worth it. I don't even think I can describe it. It was just exhausting walking around. Everything was doubled or tripled in size; the ornate decor, the blinding gold-encrusted side chapels, and the tomb of St. Peter himself was just looming.
We left the Vatican after who know how many hours. We grabbed a quick bite and made our way to the Colosseum. It was quite a qalk across town but it was worth it. When getting my first glimple of the massive structure, I had a flashback to 9th grade Global History. This was the same perpective the cover ouf our textbook pictured! We went on a tour and leared quite a bit aboutt he building and its' uses throughout the the ages. It was very instresting to hear about what else happend beside the well-known Gladiatorial fights and we spent a couple hours wandering on our own. After that very long day we headed to our next hostel, which was outside of Rome in the town of Ciampino, since we had to catch a flight at at 6:30 the next morning. Ugh. So we caught a train out there and found out we go on the wrong one. Uh oh. Apparently it was an express train that passed our stop but we didn't see that anywhere on the platform and it was the train the ticket office told us to board. Grr. So, we're 30 minutes outside of Roma and the train finally stops so we got off, along with a few girls from Amsterdam who were also trying to find the Ciampino stop. As we waited for the next train back toward Roma we all got to chatting. They were on a trip from their university for an art history class. They were really nice and told us we absoutely must make it to Amsterdam. We'll see. So the train comes and we make it to Ciampino so now we have to find our bus but that came right as we walked out of the station. Hey, things are looking up! False. Our driver must have had a death wish because he was roaring down the streets and peeling out after ever stop. Even the natives we saying their prayers. Our hostel was just outside of town and we get into the middle of nowhere and the bus comes screeching to a halt. The driver turns around and tells us this is the end of the line and our stop. We look out and see absolutely nothing but an open field and an industrial plant. Ooook. We found the hostl after going around a bend and through a gate. To give you a visualization about how out in the middle of nowhere it was, there was an airplane in the parking lot...Despite it being the middle of nowhere it was really nice and much bigger than I expected. We were pretty starving at this point and the staff said pretty much everything (not that there was much) around was closed but there might be some food at the gas station by the road...about half a mile away. It was pretty sketchy walking down an unlit road but we finally go to the gas station and spotted a restaurant that seemed to be open. The smells coming from the place made me wide-eyed. We passed by the buffet up front, which was filled with mozarell balls, fresh olives, seafood and sooo much more. We got a table and ordered as quickly as we could. I started out with some bruschetta and winde. They say hunger is the best seasong...it also helps to have a mind-blowingly good meal too. I had risotto in a scampi cream sauce, made to perfection and piping hot. My second meal was a cheese. But this was no ordinary cheese. It was a huge slab of smoked mozarella, baked in an oven and topped with watercress. mmmm. I demolished it all. Such a satisfying meal after a pretty disppointing culinary experience in Roma. We sauntered back to the hostel, bellies full and passed out. 6:30 flight to Venice. Yay!
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
When in Rome...
Ok, I got that joke out of the way. What a breath of fresh air (literally) leaving behind Napoli. Only the flat and occassionally mountaneous countryside lay before us. The train was a few hourse longs to Roma and it was a nice way to ease into what I expected was going to be a pretty packed day. Firt things first wwa to check into the hostel. To our surprise the buses were free (in the sense that no one buys tickets and the drivers do not check). We even asked the driver how much a ticket cost and he just waved us on. We rushed checking in and booked it to Vatican City to meet up with Eric (my other flatmate in London). He and his girlfriend were leaving that day and we wanted to say hi. We said some quick hellos and recounted the past few days and then they took off. First stop: St. Peters Basilica. The whole area was huge. The shots on tv do it no justice. We asaw the window where the Pope gives all his speeches. Looking out into it, it must be somethign else speaking to thousands of people packed in the square. We were pretty hungry so we ehaded out towards the Spanish steps hoping to find a less toursity area to eat. We stopped at a snack bar on the way and I picked up a lemon tart to tide me over...quite delicious. We ended up at a restaurant a couple blocks from the steps and chowed down. Mike and I split a plate of Prosciutto and Mozarella di Bufula. I ended up getting Lasangnetta de psesto which was basically a few lasagna noodles in pesto with basil, garlic and pine nuts. It was good but not very filling. the Spanish steps were pretty neat but a lots of tourists as predicted. I have a feeling this will be a theme in our time in Roma.
On another tangent why do we call cities in other countries different then what the natives do? I was looking at map from Italy and all the American cities are written as we know them. They do not call New York City, Citta di Nuovo York. Yet we call Roma, Rome, and Napoli, Naples. Just something I noticed.
Anyway...we basically did the tourist thing. We saw the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and Piazza Novona. Also stopped at a gelaterria where I had melon, mango, raspberry and blackberry. I could live here easily...but would never be able to leave because I would end up like the half-ton man (if not more). We caught a bus back and planned to hit up the Vatican again and the Colesseum. I also found out the Pope will be giving a speech on Wednesday but we weill be heading to Venice by then. Oh well. Well, onward! To bed that is.
We are almost at the halfway point of our trek. Man the time flies. Take care!
Omar
PS I would write about our second day in Roma but my hands hurt and Andrew needs to write some emails. Hopefully I will be able to update once more but I am keeping vigilant notes. Ciao!
On another tangent why do we call cities in other countries different then what the natives do? I was looking at map from Italy and all the American cities are written as we know them. They do not call New York City, Citta di Nuovo York. Yet we call Roma, Rome, and Napoli, Naples. Just something I noticed.
Anyway...we basically did the tourist thing. We saw the Trevi Fountain, the Pantheon and Piazza Novona. Also stopped at a gelaterria where I had melon, mango, raspberry and blackberry. I could live here easily...but would never be able to leave because I would end up like the half-ton man (if not more). We caught a bus back and planned to hit up the Vatican again and the Colesseum. I also found out the Pope will be giving a speech on Wednesday but we weill be heading to Venice by then. Oh well. Well, onward! To bed that is.
We are almost at the halfway point of our trek. Man the time flies. Take care!
Omar
PS I would write about our second day in Roma but my hands hurt and Andrew needs to write some emails. Hopefully I will be able to update once more but I am keeping vigilant notes. Ciao!
That is Amoré
Day 3: Napoli
What a dump! Napoli is so disgusting and dirty and smelly. Definitely not what I was expecting. It reminds me of Mad Max. We got in around 6 am and the town was pretty much deserted. It seemed like the only life stirring was the hobos and screeching birds. We got to the hostel and dropped off our bags and went exploring. It was pretty tough finding a place to eat, even the afternoon but we booked a ferry to la Isola di Capri. Thank goodness we got out of Napoli! Capri was so beatiful. It was pretty touristy but the experience and scenery was well worth seeing quite a few Americans. We took a boat to the Blue Grotto which was breath taking. That was well worthing visiting. We had to get on a speed boat to take us around the island then a row boat into the grotto. Randomy we ran into some fellow Ithacans in the Mediterranean. We stayed on Capri through sunset (which of course was AWESOME). We were pretty knackered by the end of the day so we turned in early. Leaving dirty old Napoli and heading for Rome tomorrow!
Peace,
O
What a dump! Napoli is so disgusting and dirty and smelly. Definitely not what I was expecting. It reminds me of Mad Max. We got in around 6 am and the town was pretty much deserted. It seemed like the only life stirring was the hobos and screeching birds. We got to the hostel and dropped off our bags and went exploring. It was pretty tough finding a place to eat, even the afternoon but we booked a ferry to la Isola di Capri. Thank goodness we got out of Napoli! Capri was so beatiful. It was pretty touristy but the experience and scenery was well worth seeing quite a few Americans. We took a boat to the Blue Grotto which was breath taking. That was well worthing visiting. We had to get on a speed boat to take us around the island then a row boat into the grotto. Randomy we ran into some fellow Ithacans in the Mediterranean. We stayed on Capri through sunset (which of course was AWESOME). We were pretty knackered by the end of the day so we turned in early. Leaving dirty old Napoli and heading for Rome tomorrow!
Peace,
O
OMAL Excellent Adventure Day 2
Ahh Sicilia. What a great place. We expltored a bit more and ended up at an archiological museum. They had a lot of Egyptian and Greco-Roman artifacts. There were even some ancient cave drawings. We went down to the water again and hung out there for a while. Palermo is not huge so we took our time and pretty much saw everything there was to see. The only interesting thing to note was the gradual disintigration of my backpack. It first started in the airport in London. I put my bag on the x-ray and it came out with the hip buckle broken. I filed a complain but little did I know it was the least of my troubles. I jury-rigged the hip strap back together but in the musem the whole thing broke. While walking around one of the shoulder strap clips broke. I tied it up to another clip higher on the strap and of course that broke...along with the other shoulder strap. At that point my mission was to get through the day and possibly find another backpack. We browsed through some more markets and were unsuccessful. I drowned my failure in gelatto. Que sera. Anyway, I got to the train station with my bag, for the most part, functioning. The train was really cool. If you know your geography you know that Sicilia is not connected to the main part of Italy. One would assume there would be a bridge. Silly you... they loaded the train onto a ferry! We sailed across the 3 or so mile strech on the train on a boat. On the other side it took us the rest of the way to Napoli. It was a sleeper train so we got comfy in the pull out beds and slept. See you in the morning. Napoli and Capri tomorrow! Very exciting
Ciao
Ciao
Omar, Mike, Andrew and Lauraàs Excellent Adventure...in Italy
So I finally got to the internet without having to pay! Pardon any punctuation errors because the keyboard I am using is in Italian. I guess I will not be able to use contractions. Darn. Well here we go. I have been keeping a journal so I am pretty much copying word for word from there:
Day 1\ Palermo
The flight down to Italy was absolutely beautifl (the part I was awake for). When we neared Sicilia everything just got brighter. The sea was more blue, the grass greener, the countryside browner. Everything was just very vibrant and that was obvious from the air. We got off the plane and it was just a wave of perfect weather. In the mid-70s and perfect humidity. No nosebleeds for me the next 10 days. They have palm trees here! Palm trees. After we figured out which bus took us into town we found our hostel and checked in. We soon discovered Palermo is not a very toursity town. Exactly what I was hoping for. We got to ease into the culture and not feel rushed into seeing the sights. Although there was some beautiful architecture and gardens in town. We hunted for some food and stumbled upon a pizza joint. It was pretty much like a fast food pizza place but WHOA it was good. Easily the best Siciallian pizza I have had in my life. Afterwards we headed down to the Mediterranean Sea...oh boy was it blue. I have heard people talk about out clear it is but it is a different thing actually seeing it. We sat on some rocks and just basked in the sun. The water was so clear and very warm. We wandered around some more and hit up a market. This was one of the biggest markets I have seen ever. It kept winding through the streets and each block there was something new. Tons of knick-knacks, food (including skinned animals). My initial thought was those animals were dogs or something and I have not been convinced otherwise. Who knows...We also saw a massive fish, at leas 1 1/2 feet long. After stopping at the hostel once more the receptionist pointed us to a restaurant. Absolutely superb. We had a 3 course meal, including wine, for 20 euro. I started out with a giant plate of mussels then moved onto a flat pasta (not quite sure what kind but it looked like tentancles) with a meat sauce covered in ceese and potatoes. My main course (yea, Italians like to eat) was grilled Mediterranean King Prawn. Of course we all tried each others meals. I tried fried chickpeas, eggplant, seabass and swordfish stuffed with a bread mince, pine nuts and raisins. We even had entertainment for our meal. A guy came and played accordian (asking for tips of course) but he was really good so we though him some money for a serenade. On the way back to the hostel we bought a bottle of wine and drank on our balcony overlooking the streets. Tom0orrow we are goign to explore some more and then take a train to Napoli. Until then.
Ciaociao
Day 1\ Palermo
The flight down to Italy was absolutely beautifl (the part I was awake for). When we neared Sicilia everything just got brighter. The sea was more blue, the grass greener, the countryside browner. Everything was just very vibrant and that was obvious from the air. We got off the plane and it was just a wave of perfect weather. In the mid-70s and perfect humidity. No nosebleeds for me the next 10 days. They have palm trees here! Palm trees. After we figured out which bus took us into town we found our hostel and checked in. We soon discovered Palermo is not a very toursity town. Exactly what I was hoping for. We got to ease into the culture and not feel rushed into seeing the sights. Although there was some beautiful architecture and gardens in town. We hunted for some food and stumbled upon a pizza joint. It was pretty much like a fast food pizza place but WHOA it was good. Easily the best Siciallian pizza I have had in my life. Afterwards we headed down to the Mediterranean Sea...oh boy was it blue. I have heard people talk about out clear it is but it is a different thing actually seeing it. We sat on some rocks and just basked in the sun. The water was so clear and very warm. We wandered around some more and hit up a market. This was one of the biggest markets I have seen ever. It kept winding through the streets and each block there was something new. Tons of knick-knacks, food (including skinned animals). My initial thought was those animals were dogs or something and I have not been convinced otherwise. Who knows...We also saw a massive fish, at leas 1 1/2 feet long. After stopping at the hostel once more the receptionist pointed us to a restaurant. Absolutely superb. We had a 3 course meal, including wine, for 20 euro. I started out with a giant plate of mussels then moved onto a flat pasta (not quite sure what kind but it looked like tentancles) with a meat sauce covered in ceese and potatoes. My main course (yea, Italians like to eat) was grilled Mediterranean King Prawn. Of course we all tried each others meals. I tried fried chickpeas, eggplant, seabass and swordfish stuffed with a bread mince, pine nuts and raisins. We even had entertainment for our meal. A guy came and played accordian (asking for tips of course) but he was really good so we though him some money for a serenade. On the way back to the hostel we bought a bottle of wine and drank on our balcony overlooking the streets. Tom0orrow we are goign to explore some more and then take a train to Napoli. Until then.
Ciaociao
Thursday, October 9, 2008
What happens when you put 5 music majors in a room in a different country...
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vzbPnXRKQYw
So good times this past weekend with Shannon and Ernest visiting. They came over from Ireland where they're studying for the year. We showed them the sights of London and all around had a blast. It's so neat that so many of us are studying abroad this term. The planets have just aligned and are shining upon us. Just riding the wave. This one's going to be short seeing I have to wake up in 3 hours to catch the bus to the airport. Italy for 10 days! Thank you Ithaca for giving us a real midterm break that's not on a holiday (although it would be a bit silly for Britain to celebrate Thanksgiving). So here's the game plan:
Sicily 2 days
Naples 1 day
Rome 2 days
Venice 2 days
Milan 2 days
Woot! And this whole trip is costing me half the price of the actual ticket to come to London. I'm very, very excited for seafood and gelato. Well, Laura is finally here so I can go to bed now. If I can get to an internet cafe or something I'll update this along the way.
Ciao!
O
So good times this past weekend with Shannon and Ernest visiting. They came over from Ireland where they're studying for the year. We showed them the sights of London and all around had a blast. It's so neat that so many of us are studying abroad this term. The planets have just aligned and are shining upon us. Just riding the wave. This one's going to be short seeing I have to wake up in 3 hours to catch the bus to the airport. Italy for 10 days! Thank you Ithaca for giving us a real midterm break that's not on a holiday (although it would be a bit silly for Britain to celebrate Thanksgiving). So here's the game plan:
Sicily 2 days
Naples 1 day
Rome 2 days
Venice 2 days
Milan 2 days
Woot! And this whole trip is costing me half the price of the actual ticket to come to London. I'm very, very excited for seafood and gelato. Well, Laura is finally here so I can go to bed now. If I can get to an internet cafe or something I'll update this along the way.
Ciao!
O
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Travelling about
So in an effort to make this blog actually interesting I have tried to space out my posts. But of course with my terrible memory I know I have been forgetting things. I'll try my best to recall this past week and a half... Here goes
A couple weekends ago we went to stonehenge. "Wow, Omar that must have been so cool!!" It was alright. Stonehenge was definitely a sight to see but it was kind of odd because that's it. It's pretty random because you're just standing in the middle of a field then you look over and there's a structure thousands of years old. The rest of the weekend was the best in my opinion. This was another one of the school trips. We went to Bath, Wells and Glastonbury (and stonehenge). All of those towns were really neat. Like everything else here the architecture is astonishing. Abbeys, churches, whatever, that are centuries old. In Bath (guess what it's named after) we took a tour of the Roman Baths and ruined temple from sometime in the 40s AD. It's pretty crazy that this natural hot spring is still going. And even crazier that the water coming up now was meltwater from probably a couple thousand years ago that permeated through the ground. We did some wandering around the rest of the city and got some pasties. Mmmm mmm good.
A tip to any other IC folk that get a little home(Ithaca)-sick...go to Glastonbury. I couldn't believe how many hippies were wandering about the place. Right outside a 500 year old church there was a drum circle and just a few metres down a woman in pirate clothes blowing a horn. I swear it was like being on the commons. Our main reason for visting Glastonbury was going up to the Tor ("hill" in Welsh). This area was supposedly where a lot of the King Arthur stories come from. The whole place used to be a sea and these giant hills were just tiny islands throughout. It was a tough climb but we made it up and boy was it worth it. It was a gorgeous day out (one of the few) and being on that hill and the breeze flying past you. It was a titanic moment for sure. Everything is green over here. It was like being back in Ireland. And somehow there were a butt load of cows up there. Search me how they got up there or even why but it was quite a hassle having to avoid their little presents. The trip ended all well and good. We got back to London and the next I played softball again in Hyde Park. We've really been lucking out with the good weather when we need it. Well, so begins another week of music listening, play attending, and teaching. Till next time...at a shorter interval.
Cheerio,
Omar
By the way, no one says "Cheerio" over here. Although I did have a lady asking for directions say "Jolly Good" to me.
A couple weekends ago we went to stonehenge. "Wow, Omar that must have been so cool!!" It was alright. Stonehenge was definitely a sight to see but it was kind of odd because that's it. It's pretty random because you're just standing in the middle of a field then you look over and there's a structure thousands of years old. The rest of the weekend was the best in my opinion. This was another one of the school trips. We went to Bath, Wells and Glastonbury (and stonehenge). All of those towns were really neat. Like everything else here the architecture is astonishing. Abbeys, churches, whatever, that are centuries old. In Bath (guess what it's named after) we took a tour of the Roman Baths and ruined temple from sometime in the 40s AD. It's pretty crazy that this natural hot spring is still going. And even crazier that the water coming up now was meltwater from probably a couple thousand years ago that permeated through the ground. We did some wandering around the rest of the city and got some pasties. Mmmm mmm good.
A tip to any other IC folk that get a little home(Ithaca)-sick...go to Glastonbury. I couldn't believe how many hippies were wandering about the place. Right outside a 500 year old church there was a drum circle and just a few metres down a woman in pirate clothes blowing a horn. I swear it was like being on the commons. Our main reason for visting Glastonbury was going up to the Tor ("hill" in Welsh). This area was supposedly where a lot of the King Arthur stories come from. The whole place used to be a sea and these giant hills were just tiny islands throughout. It was a tough climb but we made it up and boy was it worth it. It was a gorgeous day out (one of the few) and being on that hill and the breeze flying past you. It was a titanic moment for sure. Everything is green over here. It was like being back in Ireland. And somehow there were a butt load of cows up there. Search me how they got up there or even why but it was quite a hassle having to avoid their little presents. The trip ended all well and good. We got back to London and the next I played softball again in Hyde Park. We've really been lucking out with the good weather when we need it. Well, so begins another week of music listening, play attending, and teaching. Till next time...at a shorter interval.
Cheerio,
Omar
By the way, no one says "Cheerio" over here. Although I did have a lady asking for directions say "Jolly Good" to me.
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