We got into Venice at about 11:20 AM on Monday, March 24th and were shocked at how cold it was. Logiclly, I know that Venice is north and on the sea so it shouldn't be as warm as Rome, but still. I think Brighton was warmer than that and it's in England! We got out of the train station fairly quickly and caught the vaparetto (water bus) to the Rialto Bridge. Vaparetto are ridiculously expensive! Venice is small enough that you definitely can walk around instead of spending the 6.50 euro to take the water bus. But on the first day, with all our luggage, it was worth it. And you did get a nice view of the Grand Canal. I knew that Venice was an expensive city but it was still a bit of a shock looking at the prices on things. Anyway, we got to the Rialto Bridge stop, got off and managed to find our way to the room with few nagivational problems. The directions told us to walk to a restaurant and ask for this woman when we got there. Because we were in Italy, I was expecting to find it at the top of some Italian restaurant with some old, jolly Italian woman running it. I was way off. Instead, it was this Chinese restaurant filled with half the Asians in Venice, run by this old Chinese woman who didn't speak much English and probably didn't speak a lot of Italian either. And after we checked in, we were led out of the restaurant and down this little side street where the rooms actually were. It was definitely nice to have a big bed, a personal bathroom, and just not staying in a hostel. Good life choice for us. After a brief rest, we headed out to check ou San Marco Square and the Basilica San Marco. Both were tremendously impressive and large and it was interesting to see all of the Middle Eastern influences on the Basilica. However, what I found most interesting was that the floor of the church rolls because the foundation is only really solid on the perimeter and not in the center. After that we wandered across the Rialto Bridge, got lost in a non-touristy neighborhood and had an alright dinner. We then braved the cold to take night pictures but quickly returned to the warm room. Venice is definitely beautiful and picturesque but the prices, crowds, and weather annoyed me. A nice hot shower eased some of the crabiness, but still.
Tuesday morning started off somewhat early. We wanted to head down to the Accademia kind of around when it was opening to see DaVinci's Vetruvian Man among other things. When we got down there, we found out that the Vetruvian man was indeed at that museum but that we weren't going to be able to see it, for some reason still not clear to me. But, the musuem was free so we decided to go in anyway. I'm not the hugest art fan (I like it and I like museums but I'm not crazy obsessed) and this musuem wasn't super interesting. Some medieval, some Reneissance, but nothing great. Maybe they had cooler things in the rooms that were closed but I have no idea. We only were there for probably about an hour and then proceeded out. Afterwards we wanted to go see a glass blowing demonstration and looked for a Rick Steve's approved place in Piazza San Marco but to no avail; we couldn't find it. And then we didn't feel like paying the 10+ euro to take the vaporetto round trip to the island of Murano so we decided to just do some more wandering. We headed down to the very east end of the Venice fish to the neighborhood of Santa Elena. It was so beautiful and quiet down there- a wonderful break frm the crazy, crowded, touristy area of San Marco. There wasn't much to do there so we headed back to the main part of the island. We picked up lunch on the way (bread and cheese, obviously) and returned to the room to eat it (Venice is not at all picnic-ing friendly). After lunch and a brief siesta, we headed out to do some glass shopping. I was very picky about what I wanted and even though it seemed like it should be beasy to accomplish, it did take a while. We dropped off our purchases, headed out to dinner (a lovely little RS recommendation in San Polo- delicious shrimp scampi) and came back for some wonderful Italian pastries for dessert before crashing into bed.
We had to get out of the room by 10:30 on Wednesday so we got up at 9ish, showered, packed up and left. Unfortunately we did not have anywhere to store our bags for the day so our adventures were severly limited. Mostly we spent many hours slowly winding our way from Piazza San Marco to Piazzale Roma/Train station, stopping in campos along the way to sit in the sun and eat. In one of the campos, a guitarist, violinist and accordian player stopped by and serenaded us for a little while. I found it to be a little awkward, but kind of quaint/cute as well. Eventually we made it to where we wanted to be and I said goodbye to Matt and Steve as they headed to the airport and I headed to the train station. I miss the boys a lot- they were wonderful to travel with. Venice ended with me spending many cold hours in the train station, waiting for my 11 PM train to roll in.
Reflection on Venice: Very picturesque and unique, considering it's made of canals and there are no cars anywhere (no more crazy Italian motorists!). However, I would say it was my lease favorite of the Italian cities. There were WAY too many people there and it was WAY too crowded which just made me cranky. Also it was cold (althought, not too bad if you were in the sun) which didn't make me happy either. But it was something kind of special once you got away frmo the crowds. And we didn't try to pack too much into a day, which I thought was nice and relaxing. I want to use this vacation and explore and see the world, but I also don't want to be crazy stressed and tired all the time. I could see coming back to Venice as an old, somewhat wealthy person (too expensive for a college student) but I don't know if before then.
Reflection on Italy: It was amazing how different all the cities in Italy were. Rome was hectic and confusing but so historical and interesting. Florence was much more relaxing, just as historical and beautiful, with nice people, but crappy weather. Venice was very unique, full of cute little dogs, but too crowded, too touristy, too expensive and the people there weren't very nice. But I don't think I would be very nice either if I constantly had to cater to crazy tourists. Italy was very wonderful, and I had a grand time, but I was definitely ready for France and the French. Allons-y!
Friday, 28 March 2008
Thursday, 27 March 2008
Grand European Adventure: Florence, Italy
We arrived in Florence at about 11:30 AM on March 21st. We quickly made our way to the hostel (very short walk from the train station- but really, nothing in central Florence took a long time to get to). Suprisingly enough, the hostel we were staying in just opened the day before we got there. Downside to this: a lot of their amenities were not up and running (but it will be an awesome hostel when they are ready- they have a sauna!). Upside to this: we were the first peple to sleep in the beds, use the sheets, use the bathroom, etc, which made me very happy. After the hostel in Rome with its dubious cleanliness and serious lack of space, the brand new, large hostel, was a welcome sight. We couldn't check in until 3:00 PM, so we dropped off our stuff and headed out exploring. We found this bakery, Sabrina, on our way to the Duomo which played a key part in our Florentine culinary adventures. We circled around the streets and then ducked into a place for lunch and to sit until 3 because it was raining (sadly, a repetitive theme throughout the trip). We checked in, took a nap, got up, found dinner (I tried Florentine bread soup- really good!), wandered a bit more but made it back to the hostel relatively early because of the crappy weather.
On Saturday, we woke up early so we wouldn't have to wait terribly long to get into the Accademia to see David. We were lucky and only had to wait like 10 minutes to get inside the museum. Wandering through it, we eventually got to the long hallway with Michelangelo's Prisoners and culminating at the end with David. When Matt and I turned the corner, we just kind of stopped in awe. I guess I didn't really realize how large the statue actually was, but its huge! And incredibly beautiful and amazing. I spent a long time just admiring it. We went through the rest of the museum, but it wasn't super exciting except for David. But he was worth it. When we left the museum, it was, surprise, sunny, so we decided to look around the city and actually take pictures. We also went through the central market where I picked up some souveniers. Before lunch we went to the hostel to find Steve (we lost him in the musem and he went back to the hostel to rest his knee), and decided on a delicious lunch of bread, cheese and fruite. We picked up the bread from Sabrina (like I said, large part of our life) and the cheese from this little deli with a great guy who let us try differetn cheeses and made suggestions about what to get. So we got our provisions and sat in a park to have our picnic. It could have been a little warmer, but it was still a fantastic life choice. After lunch we walked down to Ponte Vecchio, looked at the Science Museum (not my cup of tee, but Matt's a nerd and wanted to go; it had Galileo's telescope, so I guess it was kind of okay), wandered around, got dinner after a nap and eventually took some night pictures of the Duomo, some Piazzas and the river Arno and headed back to the hostel around midnight,
On Easter Sunday, we got up arond 8 and headed down to the Duomo at 9. We had originally wanted to go to Easter services at the cathedral, but we noticed a large amount of people gathering to watch the cart explode, and since we couldn't really figure out how to get into the church (the entrance for services was actually on the side of the nave instead of the back) so we decided to instead wait around for the explosion, theoretically happening at 11 AM. At about 9:30, we heard music in the streets. I guess around 9, a procession begins in the city to bring the cart, pulled by 4, decked out white oxen into the square. The procession included drummers, flag twirlers and other such spectacle, all to entertained the masses while we waited for the cart to be set up. The cart doesn't actually explode but rather a ton of fireworks get set up around and on the cart and are set off. Throughout the procession and set up, some religious people also came out from the church and did some holy stuff. At 11, a rocket-type thing came shooting off from the inside of the chuch, setting off the entire spectacle. The fireworks were all connected in a domino kind of way and were AMAZING! Absolutely incredible. They probably went off continuously for fifteen minutes and were seriously worth the 2 hour wait to have a good view. At the end, they handed out hard boiled eggs and olive brances to people in the crowd. We got an egg and it made me feel very Eastery. Just as the event was over, it started to rain so we grabbed lunch (bread, from Sabrina of course, and cheese again), headed back to the hostel to enjoy our feast and take a nap. At 3:300, we got up and headed to the train station to get tickets to Venice. In all honestly, we would rather pay the extra 10 euro to get a fast, direct train than be cheap and get the crappy ones that we have to change. After we got our tickets on the comfy train, we were going to take advantage of the lack of rain and go across the river to Piazzale Michelangelo, but on the way, we discovered that there was Vespers at 5:30, and Mass at 6:00 at the Duomo, so we decided to check that out instead. I'm not super religious but it was an Italian Mass, on Easter, in the Duomo, in Florence, so why not. I couldn't understand a word of it (well, maybe a word) but it was beautiful none-the-less. Mostly because of the setting. After services, we found dinner- had a great pizza but had to deal with a gruff, kind of rude waiter, and headed back to the hostle early, probably around 9. The boys went to play pool while I reorganized my life (and by my life, I mean my bag). We woke up at about 7 in the morning, grabbed one last Florentine pastry and got on the train to Venice!
Reflection on Florence: All different kinds of wonderful. I think I liked it more than Rome, but it's kind of a toss up. Rome had more sights and things to do, but Florence was so much less hectic and not as frustrating (it was so much easier to navigate the streets! We didn't even really need a map after the first day). It was a beautiful city to stoll around, it did have a lot of historical sights, and we felt very comfortable/at home there. Really, the only downside, in my opinion, was the lack of sunshine and warm weather.
On Saturday, we woke up early so we wouldn't have to wait terribly long to get into the Accademia to see David. We were lucky and only had to wait like 10 minutes to get inside the museum. Wandering through it, we eventually got to the long hallway with Michelangelo's Prisoners and culminating at the end with David. When Matt and I turned the corner, we just kind of stopped in awe. I guess I didn't really realize how large the statue actually was, but its huge! And incredibly beautiful and amazing. I spent a long time just admiring it. We went through the rest of the museum, but it wasn't super exciting except for David. But he was worth it. When we left the museum, it was, surprise, sunny, so we decided to look around the city and actually take pictures. We also went through the central market where I picked up some souveniers. Before lunch we went to the hostel to find Steve (we lost him in the musem and he went back to the hostel to rest his knee), and decided on a delicious lunch of bread, cheese and fruite. We picked up the bread from Sabrina (like I said, large part of our life) and the cheese from this little deli with a great guy who let us try differetn cheeses and made suggestions about what to get. So we got our provisions and sat in a park to have our picnic. It could have been a little warmer, but it was still a fantastic life choice. After lunch we walked down to Ponte Vecchio, looked at the Science Museum (not my cup of tee, but Matt's a nerd and wanted to go; it had Galileo's telescope, so I guess it was kind of okay), wandered around, got dinner after a nap and eventually took some night pictures of the Duomo, some Piazzas and the river Arno and headed back to the hostel around midnight,
On Easter Sunday, we got up arond 8 and headed down to the Duomo at 9. We had originally wanted to go to Easter services at the cathedral, but we noticed a large amount of people gathering to watch the cart explode, and since we couldn't really figure out how to get into the church (the entrance for services was actually on the side of the nave instead of the back) so we decided to instead wait around for the explosion, theoretically happening at 11 AM. At about 9:30, we heard music in the streets. I guess around 9, a procession begins in the city to bring the cart, pulled by 4, decked out white oxen into the square. The procession included drummers, flag twirlers and other such spectacle, all to entertained the masses while we waited for the cart to be set up. The cart doesn't actually explode but rather a ton of fireworks get set up around and on the cart and are set off. Throughout the procession and set up, some religious people also came out from the church and did some holy stuff. At 11, a rocket-type thing came shooting off from the inside of the chuch, setting off the entire spectacle. The fireworks were all connected in a domino kind of way and were AMAZING! Absolutely incredible. They probably went off continuously for fifteen minutes and were seriously worth the 2 hour wait to have a good view. At the end, they handed out hard boiled eggs and olive brances to people in the crowd. We got an egg and it made me feel very Eastery. Just as the event was over, it started to rain so we grabbed lunch (bread, from Sabrina of course, and cheese again), headed back to the hostel to enjoy our feast and take a nap. At 3:300, we got up and headed to the train station to get tickets to Venice. In all honestly, we would rather pay the extra 10 euro to get a fast, direct train than be cheap and get the crappy ones that we have to change. After we got our tickets on the comfy train, we were going to take advantage of the lack of rain and go across the river to Piazzale Michelangelo, but on the way, we discovered that there was Vespers at 5:30, and Mass at 6:00 at the Duomo, so we decided to check that out instead. I'm not super religious but it was an Italian Mass, on Easter, in the Duomo, in Florence, so why not. I couldn't understand a word of it (well, maybe a word) but it was beautiful none-the-less. Mostly because of the setting. After services, we found dinner- had a great pizza but had to deal with a gruff, kind of rude waiter, and headed back to the hostle early, probably around 9. The boys went to play pool while I reorganized my life (and by my life, I mean my bag). We woke up at about 7 in the morning, grabbed one last Florentine pastry and got on the train to Venice!
Reflection on Florence: All different kinds of wonderful. I think I liked it more than Rome, but it's kind of a toss up. Rome had more sights and things to do, but Florence was so much less hectic and not as frustrating (it was so much easier to navigate the streets! We didn't even really need a map after the first day). It was a beautiful city to stoll around, it did have a lot of historical sights, and we felt very comfortable/at home there. Really, the only downside, in my opinion, was the lack of sunshine and warm weather.
Grand European Adventure: Rome, Italy
I finally have some free, unlimited access to the internet without feeling like a million people need to use it, and I'm waiting for a little bit, so I think I can finally update this...at least a little.
The grand adventure started off on Sunday, March 16th. I made it to Stansted airport without any major mishaps, just a lot of time to kill. Per usual, I was way to early for my bus from London Victoria to the airport, so I spent a lot of time waiting around in the cold trainstation. And then once I got to the airport at 11:45, I waiting around in the cold airport for 6 hours before my flight. I have never before seen so many people sleeping in an airport! I guess the Europeans do it a lot and are pros at it because I saw people with sleeping bags, with pillows...even a guy with a blow up mattress! I was impressed, and definitely not as comfortable. After a long wait, with some brief dozing, I finally made it on the plane, crashed there for 2 hours and got into Rome easily enough. Felicia and I had agreed upon this place in the Termini train station to meet (since we were coming from different airports), but when I got to Termini, the place was not there. Serendipitously, though, as I was wandering through the trainstation, I found Felicia! It was a happy reunion, and I was so glad to see her. It was very weird to be in a country where they don't speak English, and I have new found respect for people who study abroad in countries where they are not fluent in the language. All the people speaking Italian intimidated me! (But I got over it, very quickly). Anyway, FAB and I made our way to the hostel, dropped off our stuff, and headed out.
Our first plan was to get to find lunch and get to the Spanish Steps to eat it and plan out our trip. However, the streets of Rome are frustratingly confusing and it took us a very long time to get to where we wanted. Eventually when we did get there, a crabby policewoman told us that we weren't allowed to eat on the steps. Which I thought was silly. But whatever, we walked 2 feet away from the steps, finished our lunch standing up and then went back to our seats. After we enjoyed the sun for a while, we continued to explore...A LOT. We hit up the Pantheon, the Trevi, Villa Borghese, Piazza Navona and everything in between. We decided we would return to the Trevi sometime during the day when it would hopefully be less crowded and so that we could toss the coin and take pictures. The day ended with our first gelator (nutella, chocolate and hazelnut, yummy) and back to the hostel to CRASH.
The next day, the 18th, was another whirlwind walking tour of the city. We first went to Santa Maria Vittoria to see Bernini's Santa Teresa in Ecstasy statue. Pretty church and pretty statue. We then walked over to the Cappuchin Crypts to see the decoratively built mounds of monk bones. It was both creepy and incredibly cool at the same time. You werent allowed to take pictures, which was a bummer, so I bought a postcard to commemorate the occasion. Afterwards, we walked back to the Trevi fountain to toss coins in and take pictures since the ones at night didn't exactly turn out well. From the Trevi we would lunch at a deli counter in an Italian grocery store and it was delicious...ham and cheese on bread...what more could you want? We walked through Piazza della Repubblica, down to Santa Maria Maggiore which was HUGE and where Bernini is buried. We crossed over the "Sacred Area" (a large set of ruins which is now inhabited by a bunch of cats), down into Trastavere. We spend a while wandering around to find a restaurant Vicky recommended. I think we found it, but I'm not sure, there were a lot of restaurants in that area with essentially the same exact name. I had spaghetti carbonara which was good but I'm not sure I would eat it a lot. It was very rich and I'm not a huge fan of bacon. Then we had gelato at a Vicky/Rick Steves (A god among men) recommended place and it was amazing. Pistacchio and cinnamon, who would have thought it? We made our way through Campo di Fiori and crashed in bed again.
On Wednesday, Felicia and I had planned to go to the Vatican in the morning, but it was closed for some Holy Wednesday thing, so we had to replan. Instead we decided to walk down to Trastavere again and go into this park. We were trying to find this monument that apparently had a great view of Rome in it, but we could not, for the life of us find it. But we got somewhat of view and enjoyed the sunshine in the park. Around noon, Felicia went to check out the synagogue and I met up with Matt and Steve at the hostel, who had just arrived from Barcelona. It was wonderful to see them again- after spending every dinner with them for the past couple of months, I had definitely missed them a lot. We grabbed lunch and then met up with Felicia outside of the Colesseum.We went into Palatine Hill, The Forum and the big arena. All incredibly impressive. I really liked the Forum (mostly thanks to the information from my savior, Rick Steves) for all of its history and fun facts- and I liked the Colessuem just because it was large and historical and because I love "Gladiator" (lame, I know). We popped back to the hostel for a little nap and went in search of dinner. We wanted to go towards the Trevi Fountain, got lost, but found a great little restaurant on the way (Abruzzis, maybe? I dont know). It was amazing, so it didn't even matter that we were lost. Eventually we did make it to the fountain, took some beautiful night pictures with Matt's camera and got gelato at another RS recommendation.
The next morning we woke up early and got on the metro to Vatican city. I guess I'm just used to the London Tube which is fairly clean, so I was surprised to see all the grafitti on the train, and it was packed full of people going to work. But it was fast and efficient and got us to the Vatican in short time. We had wanted to go to the museum first, but stupid me just followed the mass of people going into the Basilica for mass. Eventually we got in line for the musuem and it was ridiculously long. After about 90 minutes, we made it inside and were excited to find that we could get a student discount for 8 euro instead of 14. The museum was huge and impressive (kind of a theme for Rome) and the Sistene chapel was as beautiful as they say. We sat there for a while to take it all in (and because we were tired), We got out of the musem and ran through a downpour to get lunch (damn the rain in Italy!) and made our way back to the Basilica once it stopped pouring. Luckily, when we were in line, we heard this priest talking to this American family (later we found out that his mother knows the wife's mother), giving them a tour. We listened in and asked the family if they minded if we could continue to do so and they said of course, which was amazing. The priest was studying at the North American Seminary in Rome and knew so much about the chuch, which made St. Peter's so much more interesting than it probably would have been on our own. Probably the highlight of the trip. We left Vatican city bought our train tickets to Florence, went back to the hostel, headed back to Trastavere for dinner. It was okay, but definitely not as good as the night before. Gelato and baked goods for dessert (per usual), and went home. Got up at 8 the next day, breakfast and train by 10, goodbye to Felicia and on our way to Florence! I love trains. The Eurostar trains are super fast and very comfortable.
Reflection on Rome: Beautiful, ancient, wonderful. Frustrating because of the streets and our ability to get completely lost and too much to do with not enough time. Food was good, gelato was fantastic. People at the hostel were nice and it was in a great location, but the cleanliness was a little dubious and it was too lound and way too cramped. But we didn't spend too much time there, so it was okay. All in all, it was a great little Roman holiday and a fabulous way to start off my Grand European Adventure.
Other cities will be updated at a later time, with pictures to follow much much later. Ciao! (Or I suppose au revoir since I'm now in France!)
The grand adventure started off on Sunday, March 16th. I made it to Stansted airport without any major mishaps, just a lot of time to kill. Per usual, I was way to early for my bus from London Victoria to the airport, so I spent a lot of time waiting around in the cold trainstation. And then once I got to the airport at 11:45, I waiting around in the cold airport for 6 hours before my flight. I have never before seen so many people sleeping in an airport! I guess the Europeans do it a lot and are pros at it because I saw people with sleeping bags, with pillows...even a guy with a blow up mattress! I was impressed, and definitely not as comfortable. After a long wait, with some brief dozing, I finally made it on the plane, crashed there for 2 hours and got into Rome easily enough. Felicia and I had agreed upon this place in the Termini train station to meet (since we were coming from different airports), but when I got to Termini, the place was not there. Serendipitously, though, as I was wandering through the trainstation, I found Felicia! It was a happy reunion, and I was so glad to see her. It was very weird to be in a country where they don't speak English, and I have new found respect for people who study abroad in countries where they are not fluent in the language. All the people speaking Italian intimidated me! (But I got over it, very quickly). Anyway, FAB and I made our way to the hostel, dropped off our stuff, and headed out.
Our first plan was to get to find lunch and get to the Spanish Steps to eat it and plan out our trip. However, the streets of Rome are frustratingly confusing and it took us a very long time to get to where we wanted. Eventually when we did get there, a crabby policewoman told us that we weren't allowed to eat on the steps. Which I thought was silly. But whatever, we walked 2 feet away from the steps, finished our lunch standing up and then went back to our seats. After we enjoyed the sun for a while, we continued to explore...A LOT. We hit up the Pantheon, the Trevi, Villa Borghese, Piazza Navona and everything in between. We decided we would return to the Trevi sometime during the day when it would hopefully be less crowded and so that we could toss the coin and take pictures. The day ended with our first gelator (nutella, chocolate and hazelnut, yummy) and back to the hostel to CRASH.
The next day, the 18th, was another whirlwind walking tour of the city. We first went to Santa Maria Vittoria to see Bernini's Santa Teresa in Ecstasy statue. Pretty church and pretty statue. We then walked over to the Cappuchin Crypts to see the decoratively built mounds of monk bones. It was both creepy and incredibly cool at the same time. You werent allowed to take pictures, which was a bummer, so I bought a postcard to commemorate the occasion. Afterwards, we walked back to the Trevi fountain to toss coins in and take pictures since the ones at night didn't exactly turn out well. From the Trevi we would lunch at a deli counter in an Italian grocery store and it was delicious...ham and cheese on bread...what more could you want? We walked through Piazza della Repubblica, down to Santa Maria Maggiore which was HUGE and where Bernini is buried. We crossed over the "Sacred Area" (a large set of ruins which is now inhabited by a bunch of cats), down into Trastavere. We spend a while wandering around to find a restaurant Vicky recommended. I think we found it, but I'm not sure, there were a lot of restaurants in that area with essentially the same exact name. I had spaghetti carbonara which was good but I'm not sure I would eat it a lot. It was very rich and I'm not a huge fan of bacon. Then we had gelato at a Vicky/Rick Steves (A god among men) recommended place and it was amazing. Pistacchio and cinnamon, who would have thought it? We made our way through Campo di Fiori and crashed in bed again.
On Wednesday, Felicia and I had planned to go to the Vatican in the morning, but it was closed for some Holy Wednesday thing, so we had to replan. Instead we decided to walk down to Trastavere again and go into this park. We were trying to find this monument that apparently had a great view of Rome in it, but we could not, for the life of us find it. But we got somewhat of view and enjoyed the sunshine in the park. Around noon, Felicia went to check out the synagogue and I met up with Matt and Steve at the hostel, who had just arrived from Barcelona. It was wonderful to see them again- after spending every dinner with them for the past couple of months, I had definitely missed them a lot. We grabbed lunch and then met up with Felicia outside of the Colesseum.We went into Palatine Hill, The Forum and the big arena. All incredibly impressive. I really liked the Forum (mostly thanks to the information from my savior, Rick Steves) for all of its history and fun facts- and I liked the Colessuem just because it was large and historical and because I love "Gladiator" (lame, I know). We popped back to the hostel for a little nap and went in search of dinner. We wanted to go towards the Trevi Fountain, got lost, but found a great little restaurant on the way (Abruzzis, maybe? I dont know). It was amazing, so it didn't even matter that we were lost. Eventually we did make it to the fountain, took some beautiful night pictures with Matt's camera and got gelato at another RS recommendation.
The next morning we woke up early and got on the metro to Vatican city. I guess I'm just used to the London Tube which is fairly clean, so I was surprised to see all the grafitti on the train, and it was packed full of people going to work. But it was fast and efficient and got us to the Vatican in short time. We had wanted to go to the museum first, but stupid me just followed the mass of people going into the Basilica for mass. Eventually we got in line for the musuem and it was ridiculously long. After about 90 minutes, we made it inside and were excited to find that we could get a student discount for 8 euro instead of 14. The museum was huge and impressive (kind of a theme for Rome) and the Sistene chapel was as beautiful as they say. We sat there for a while to take it all in (and because we were tired), We got out of the musem and ran through a downpour to get lunch (damn the rain in Italy!) and made our way back to the Basilica once it stopped pouring. Luckily, when we were in line, we heard this priest talking to this American family (later we found out that his mother knows the wife's mother), giving them a tour. We listened in and asked the family if they minded if we could continue to do so and they said of course, which was amazing. The priest was studying at the North American Seminary in Rome and knew so much about the chuch, which made St. Peter's so much more interesting than it probably would have been on our own. Probably the highlight of the trip. We left Vatican city bought our train tickets to Florence, went back to the hostel, headed back to Trastavere for dinner. It was okay, but definitely not as good as the night before. Gelato and baked goods for dessert (per usual), and went home. Got up at 8 the next day, breakfast and train by 10, goodbye to Felicia and on our way to Florence! I love trains. The Eurostar trains are super fast and very comfortable.
Reflection on Rome: Beautiful, ancient, wonderful. Frustrating because of the streets and our ability to get completely lost and too much to do with not enough time. Food was good, gelato was fantastic. People at the hostel were nice and it was in a great location, but the cleanliness was a little dubious and it was too lound and way too cramped. But we didn't spend too much time there, so it was okay. All in all, it was a great little Roman holiday and a fabulous way to start off my Grand European Adventure.
Other cities will be updated at a later time, with pictures to follow much much later. Ciao! (Or I suppose au revoir since I'm now in France!)
Sunday, 16 March 2008
Slight Change of Plans
So (surprise) it's raining. And if it's raining in Brighton, it's probably raining in London. And I have no desire to wander around London with my bag in the rain, without much to do. So I'm scrapping the "I'll go up to London for the day" idea. Instead I think I'll take a train that gets in at like 7-8 and then I can just hang around London Victoria for a little while before making my way to the coach stop to the airport. The money I would have saved by taking Megabus instead of the train would have been spent on storing my bag in London for the day and by buying dinner anyway, so the prices are the same. And I also get a couple more hours here to finish putting myself together. It's very nice to be able to have a lot of time to prepare before leaving. I should always leave for adventures at like 6PM instead of 6 AM. Of course, I will have to sit in the airport forever. Oh well.
I'll be glad to get out of here, though. It's turned into a ghost university. Our hallways have motion detectors for the lights and every time I leave my room, the hall lights are off. Which is creepy because usually they're on because someone normally has walked down the hall in the past 20 minutes (or however long). Caitlin and I had dinner together last night and it was weird because all of our boys were gone. We did not appreciate it.
Last post for a month! (Unless I make sporadic posts on the road). Ciao, my captive audience!
I'll be glad to get out of here, though. It's turned into a ghost university. Our hallways have motion detectors for the lights and every time I leave my room, the hall lights are off. Which is creepy because usually they're on because someone normally has walked down the hall in the past 20 minutes (or however long). Caitlin and I had dinner together last night and it was weird because all of our boys were gone. We did not appreciate it.
Last post for a month! (Unless I make sporadic posts on the road). Ciao, my captive audience!
Friday, 14 March 2008
Term's End
Surprisingly enough, term is over. Classes are completely over. All I have to do in summer term is write a bunch of papers due in the middle of May. Somehow ten weeks have passed and here we are in the middle of March. I can't quite believe it. There's such a buzz in the air as students pack up their belongings and prepare to leave, going home or going off on some great adventure.
A lot of people on my floor are leaving tomorrow morning for Barcelona so there's this excited vibe in my hall as they all try to pack for 4 weeks. I don't leave until Monday morning but I'm feeling the energy. Well, actually, I'm planning on leaving on Sunday. The airport I'm leaving from is way out of the way (yeah, cheap tickets = inconvenient airports), and since my flight is at 6:10AM, I decided it would be easier just to spend some of Sunday in London and then go from London to the airport rather than try to get all the way from Brighton to Stansted in the middle of the night. I booked a bus ticket from London Victoria to Stansted on Sunday night at 10:20 PM, getting into the airport at 11:50 and I can just chill out in the airport/nap for a couple of hours...I feel like that's safer than wandering around London by myself at 2 in the morning. I was trying to book a bus ticket from Brighton to London, getting in at about 4 PM but the website I want to use is being weird and not accepting any of my credit cards (which leads me to believe it's the site and not my cards). I think I can buy the ticket on the bus, so I might do that, and if I can't...well I'll just take the train. And then spend 6 hours in London, doing who knows what before making my way to Rome. So I guess this is the last update for a while.
We went out to karaoke this past Tuesday night, kind of as a final event before we all depart for a month (and there are some who are going home and not coming back...wankers), and it was really fun. We wanted to get there early because the pub closes at like 11PM. But when we got there, it was actually not karaoke yet; they were airing the Inter Milan v. Liverpool football match and it was PACKED. but really fun. Nothing like hanging out in a pub with a bunch of crazy football fans (there was this one particularly crazy old man- he was fun), watching the game. And then singing karaoke afterwards. England is fun.
AHH! Grand European Adventure 2008 begins in about 48 hours!
A lot of people on my floor are leaving tomorrow morning for Barcelona so there's this excited vibe in my hall as they all try to pack for 4 weeks. I don't leave until Monday morning but I'm feeling the energy. Well, actually, I'm planning on leaving on Sunday. The airport I'm leaving from is way out of the way (yeah, cheap tickets = inconvenient airports), and since my flight is at 6:10AM, I decided it would be easier just to spend some of Sunday in London and then go from London to the airport rather than try to get all the way from Brighton to Stansted in the middle of the night. I booked a bus ticket from London Victoria to Stansted on Sunday night at 10:20 PM, getting into the airport at 11:50 and I can just chill out in the airport/nap for a couple of hours...I feel like that's safer than wandering around London by myself at 2 in the morning. I was trying to book a bus ticket from Brighton to London, getting in at about 4 PM but the website I want to use is being weird and not accepting any of my credit cards (which leads me to believe it's the site and not my cards). I think I can buy the ticket on the bus, so I might do that, and if I can't...well I'll just take the train. And then spend 6 hours in London, doing who knows what before making my way to Rome. So I guess this is the last update for a while.
We went out to karaoke this past Tuesday night, kind of as a final event before we all depart for a month (and there are some who are going home and not coming back...wankers), and it was really fun. We wanted to get there early because the pub closes at like 11PM. But when we got there, it was actually not karaoke yet; they were airing the Inter Milan v. Liverpool football match and it was PACKED. but really fun. Nothing like hanging out in a pub with a bunch of crazy football fans (there was this one particularly crazy old man- he was fun), watching the game. And then singing karaoke afterwards. England is fun.
AHH! Grand European Adventure 2008 begins in about 48 hours!
Sunday, 9 March 2008
(Witty Title)
Approaching Christ Church college...so pretty, but sooo not worth the massive amounts of work for just a semester.
More CCC (that would be Christ Church College)
How do they keep the grass so green and well maintained??? A mystery to be solved soon enough.
Garden where Lewis Carroll saw Alice Liddell playing and then decided to write a book about her.
Monastic architectural elements. This might have been fimed for Harry Potter. It looks familiar, but I don't know. When in doubt at Christ Church college, though, I'm just going to say it was used in filming.
Stairs leading up to the Great Hall. Also pretty sure they were used for HP.
CCC Quad. Impressive.
Outside of the Great Hall that we were, sadly, prevented from seeing.
Different college...Oriel.
Great Hall (i.e. cafeteria) at Oriel College. Pretty posh.
I don't think I would mind being served dinner here every night.
Bulldog! Loving nickname of the guards who make sure visitors stay where instructed and keep people off the grass (as the many many signs around campus tell you)...hence the uber green grass.
View of the quad from the entrance to the cathedral.
Nave of CCC (this time Christ Church Cathedral)
Pretty church.
Apparently all churches in England used to have painted ceilings and walls but then the Puritans decided that it was indecent and tried to get rid of it all. A little bit on the ceiling remains...perhaps the Puritans were a wee short?
The model for the figure in the middle panel was apparently Edith Liddell...Alice's older sister.
So when students first came to Oxford to learn, they didn't get along so well with the townspeople. They would often brawl with them and when fights got started, they would ring the bell in this tower to call fellow students to action....
...and the townspeople would ring the bell in this tower to form their own forces. One particularly bad brawl led to 2 students killing a woman, getting executed for it, and the other students left Oxford and fled to Cambridge to continue their studies.
Haha the gargoyles are fantastic in Oxford.
Hi there, little guy.
Entrance to the Divinity School.
On to Blenheim Palace! Outside the gates
See what I mean about the place being absolutely massive???
The east wing where the 11th Duke of Marlborough (sometimes) still lives.
Snazzy view from the front steps. That obelisk in the distance has a statue of the first Duke of Marlborough on top.
Outside in the pretty gardens. I would like a topiary garden at my house, please. Along with my house being a palace.
Delightful.
Hey! My backyard looks exactly like this!
As our tour guide said, if it looks like gold, it is gold. On the front gates to the palace.Oxford & Blenheim Palace
When, in about a week, I'm travelling around for nearly a month, I will have to remember to take some days just to relax and sleep. I can't travel for that period of time at such a break neck speed. And I definitely cannot wake up before 6 AM every day either. It just takes too much out of me.
Our day trip yesterday started with just that...a 5:15 wake up call. I blearily took a shower, got dressed, ate breakfast and met Laura down in the lobby at 6:10. Our original intentions were to catch a train from Falmer to Brighton at 6:35 and then a train from Brighton to London Victoria at 7:19, but that did not work out exactly as planned. We get to Falmer train station and read a sign that says "No trains today". Thanks Falmer, way to let us down. Luckily, right after we saw that, the 25 bus was approaching the station which took us into Brighton and we were able to get to Brighton station with time to spare. We hop on the train and about 50 minutes later (I love it when it's not Sunday night and the train doesn't take us 2.5 hours to get into London) we get off at Victoria, get on the tube station, and make our way to the Accent building on Great Russell street. The coach is set to leave at 9:00 and we're there at 8:45 so we have 15 minutes with which to sit around and relax/try to stay awake.
When the coach comes, we get on (all 7 of us...I love WashU but I'm starting to wonder what the students abroad want to do besides party. I understand that 9 AM on a Saturday is early, but come on. Whatever, their loss and I would rather be in a small group anyway). A happy surprise is that a few minutes after we get on, so does our personal tour guide. Who is none other than Angie, who so wonderfully lead us through London for 9 hours back in January. She is full of so much information about anything and everything (and I mean everything) English that she can answer any question you pose her and her answers are fascinating as well. As we drive the 90 minutes or so to Oxford she fills us in on the history of the city and the college as well as the passing scenery. The drive itself isn't particularly eventful....we pass an Aston Martin dealership which was exciting, but that was about it. At 10:30, we're in Oxford!
Sadly the day was grey, cold and gloomy but the city was beautiful. Unlike Cambridge or a lot of universities we're used to, Oxford has no set campus. The 36 different colleges are spread out throughout the city and it's nearly impossible (unless you have a fantastic tour guide with you) to tell you where one college stops and another (or some non-college-related building) starts. The tour starts off with a stop at the largest and most famous of the Oxford colleges, Christ Church. This is the college where a lot of Harry Potter was filmed, so you can imagine for yourself how impressive and magical it all is. Unfortunately the Great Hall (where the dining room scenes were filmed) was closed for the day for some special event so we weren't able to go in. However, Angie (our guide) did not want us to go through Oxford without experience a Great Hall so she had talked to a contact of hers at Oriel College and he gave us a key to the Great Hall there so we could see it. It probably wasn't as big or as impressive as the one at Christ Church, but it was still pretty swanky. I wouldn't mind eating dinner there every night. We hung around there for a little while, but as it was opening for lunch at 11:30, we got out of there at about 11:25 and headed back to Christ Church to look at the cathedral. Which was kind of a typical cathedral. Not particularly interesting or different, but pretty. Although, all the pews are set up facing each other to continue the community-learning vibe that permeates the college. We leave Christ Church, continue to wander through streets, get to the Bodleian library/Divinity School but can't go into either of them because of events and then break for lunch.
Oxford is a beautiful city and all of the colleges are gorgeous and there is such history, but I don't know if I would really want to attend school there. Maybe if I was a full time student and that was my life, I would be okay with the ridiculous amount of work, but as someone just studying abroad for a semester, I don't think so. I'll take the less picturesque, less pretigious college with less work over Oxford. They can't do anything there except for study and I like the freedom to travel around and experience the country.
Another thing that I really liked about Oxford was it's connection to Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll was a math professor at Christ Church College and he saw Alice Liddell playing in a garden there (I think Angie said that she was the daughter of a dean at Christ Church?) and wrote the book about her. Oxford is full of so many little nooks and crannies and little doorways that lead to completely different secret locations when you pop through, that it is easy to see how Wonderland was imagined. Wandering through Oxford, there were definitely some times when we'd walk through some hidden doorway or alleyway and it was easy to imagine something fantastical on the otherside. Oh and one of stained glass pieces in the Christ Church Cathedral used Edith Liddell (Alice's older sister) as a model for one of the figures, which was cool.
After lunch, at 1:45, we get back on the coach and head to Blenheim Palace, about 20 minutes north of Oxford in a city called Woodstock. Special British sighting through the town- Morris dancers! Morris dancing is basically a traditional English folk dance, and we quickly drove by them so we didn't really see much but I was like...oooh English! Just another little reminder that I'm in a different country. Now the drive up to the gates of Blenheim Palace is ridiculous. The place is effing HUGE. We all seriously gasped when we saw it.
Brief history/fun facts about BP: It was a gift (along with the title of Duke) from Queen Anne to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough for his military achievement in defeating the French. It is the only place in England that is allowed to be called a palace without having royalty live there and it is one of (if not the) largest private residences in the United Kingdom. The 11th Duke of Marlborough still lives there, although he can only live there 3 months out of the year. Like most of England's noble class, the Duke is asset rich and money poor and really cannot afford the money it takes to maintain such as massive place as Blenheim. If the Duke lives in England 3 months and 1 day during the year, he is counted as an official resident and has to pay full taxes. However, if he only lives in England for 3 months out of the year, he is mostly exempt from taxes, which is all he can afford to be. It's kind of sad because it would be amazing to live in that house all the time and it's unfortunate that he is effectively exiled from his own country for 9 months because of inability to pay taxes. He should rent out some of his rooms, it's not like he doesn't have enough. Blenheim Palace is also where Winston Churchill was born and engaged and he has a strong connection to it because his cousin was, I believe, the 9th Duke of Marlborough, and they got along well so Churchill spent a lot of time at Blenheim.
We couldn't do our own tour through the palace, which was unfortunate because the palace guide we got was about as bland as oatmeal and super uninteresting. I would have much rather had Angie give us her own tour (she did kind of give us one on the bus ride back, filling in the interesting stuff that we missed out on). The building itself was really impressive (sadly, no picture taking allowed inside) and the history was also pretty fascinating but the guide was boring and this weird "untold story" exhibit with animatronic figures was bland as well. I think I would have preferred to wander around it by myself or with Angie (actually I would like her in my ear so she can tell me everything about England all the time). After the tour, we wandered around the grounds and gardens for a little while...not too long, though because it was rainy and wet, and then got back on the coach at 4:45, back in London at 6:15 and back home in my bedroom by 9. A long day but fun. It wasn't my favorite of the day trips but I'm still glad to have done it.
Next travel: ROME! FLORENCE! VENICE! NICE! MONTPELLIER! BARCELONA! MADRID! PARIS! BRUSSELS! AMSTERDAM!
(so excited)
Our day trip yesterday started with just that...a 5:15 wake up call. I blearily took a shower, got dressed, ate breakfast and met Laura down in the lobby at 6:10. Our original intentions were to catch a train from Falmer to Brighton at 6:35 and then a train from Brighton to London Victoria at 7:19, but that did not work out exactly as planned. We get to Falmer train station and read a sign that says "No trains today". Thanks Falmer, way to let us down. Luckily, right after we saw that, the 25 bus was approaching the station which took us into Brighton and we were able to get to Brighton station with time to spare. We hop on the train and about 50 minutes later (I love it when it's not Sunday night and the train doesn't take us 2.5 hours to get into London) we get off at Victoria, get on the tube station, and make our way to the Accent building on Great Russell street. The coach is set to leave at 9:00 and we're there at 8:45 so we have 15 minutes with which to sit around and relax/try to stay awake.
When the coach comes, we get on (all 7 of us...I love WashU but I'm starting to wonder what the students abroad want to do besides party. I understand that 9 AM on a Saturday is early, but come on. Whatever, their loss and I would rather be in a small group anyway). A happy surprise is that a few minutes after we get on, so does our personal tour guide. Who is none other than Angie, who so wonderfully lead us through London for 9 hours back in January. She is full of so much information about anything and everything (and I mean everything) English that she can answer any question you pose her and her answers are fascinating as well. As we drive the 90 minutes or so to Oxford she fills us in on the history of the city and the college as well as the passing scenery. The drive itself isn't particularly eventful....we pass an Aston Martin dealership which was exciting, but that was about it. At 10:30, we're in Oxford!
Sadly the day was grey, cold and gloomy but the city was beautiful. Unlike Cambridge or a lot of universities we're used to, Oxford has no set campus. The 36 different colleges are spread out throughout the city and it's nearly impossible (unless you have a fantastic tour guide with you) to tell you where one college stops and another (or some non-college-related building) starts. The tour starts off with a stop at the largest and most famous of the Oxford colleges, Christ Church. This is the college where a lot of Harry Potter was filmed, so you can imagine for yourself how impressive and magical it all is. Unfortunately the Great Hall (where the dining room scenes were filmed) was closed for the day for some special event so we weren't able to go in. However, Angie (our guide) did not want us to go through Oxford without experience a Great Hall so she had talked to a contact of hers at Oriel College and he gave us a key to the Great Hall there so we could see it. It probably wasn't as big or as impressive as the one at Christ Church, but it was still pretty swanky. I wouldn't mind eating dinner there every night. We hung around there for a little while, but as it was opening for lunch at 11:30, we got out of there at about 11:25 and headed back to Christ Church to look at the cathedral. Which was kind of a typical cathedral. Not particularly interesting or different, but pretty. Although, all the pews are set up facing each other to continue the community-learning vibe that permeates the college. We leave Christ Church, continue to wander through streets, get to the Bodleian library/Divinity School but can't go into either of them because of events and then break for lunch.
Oxford is a beautiful city and all of the colleges are gorgeous and there is such history, but I don't know if I would really want to attend school there. Maybe if I was a full time student and that was my life, I would be okay with the ridiculous amount of work, but as someone just studying abroad for a semester, I don't think so. I'll take the less picturesque, less pretigious college with less work over Oxford. They can't do anything there except for study and I like the freedom to travel around and experience the country.
Another thing that I really liked about Oxford was it's connection to Alice in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll was a math professor at Christ Church College and he saw Alice Liddell playing in a garden there (I think Angie said that she was the daughter of a dean at Christ Church?) and wrote the book about her. Oxford is full of so many little nooks and crannies and little doorways that lead to completely different secret locations when you pop through, that it is easy to see how Wonderland was imagined. Wandering through Oxford, there were definitely some times when we'd walk through some hidden doorway or alleyway and it was easy to imagine something fantastical on the otherside. Oh and one of stained glass pieces in the Christ Church Cathedral used Edith Liddell (Alice's older sister) as a model for one of the figures, which was cool.
After lunch, at 1:45, we get back on the coach and head to Blenheim Palace, about 20 minutes north of Oxford in a city called Woodstock. Special British sighting through the town- Morris dancers! Morris dancing is basically a traditional English folk dance, and we quickly drove by them so we didn't really see much but I was like...oooh English! Just another little reminder that I'm in a different country. Now the drive up to the gates of Blenheim Palace is ridiculous. The place is effing HUGE. We all seriously gasped when we saw it.
Brief history/fun facts about BP: It was a gift (along with the title of Duke) from Queen Anne to John Churchill, the first Duke of Marlborough for his military achievement in defeating the French. It is the only place in England that is allowed to be called a palace without having royalty live there and it is one of (if not the) largest private residences in the United Kingdom. The 11th Duke of Marlborough still lives there, although he can only live there 3 months out of the year. Like most of England's noble class, the Duke is asset rich and money poor and really cannot afford the money it takes to maintain such as massive place as Blenheim. If the Duke lives in England 3 months and 1 day during the year, he is counted as an official resident and has to pay full taxes. However, if he only lives in England for 3 months out of the year, he is mostly exempt from taxes, which is all he can afford to be. It's kind of sad because it would be amazing to live in that house all the time and it's unfortunate that he is effectively exiled from his own country for 9 months because of inability to pay taxes. He should rent out some of his rooms, it's not like he doesn't have enough. Blenheim Palace is also where Winston Churchill was born and engaged and he has a strong connection to it because his cousin was, I believe, the 9th Duke of Marlborough, and they got along well so Churchill spent a lot of time at Blenheim.
We couldn't do our own tour through the palace, which was unfortunate because the palace guide we got was about as bland as oatmeal and super uninteresting. I would have much rather had Angie give us her own tour (she did kind of give us one on the bus ride back, filling in the interesting stuff that we missed out on). The building itself was really impressive (sadly, no picture taking allowed inside) and the history was also pretty fascinating but the guide was boring and this weird "untold story" exhibit with animatronic figures was bland as well. I think I would have preferred to wander around it by myself or with Angie (actually I would like her in my ear so she can tell me everything about England all the time). After the tour, we wandered around the grounds and gardens for a little while...not too long, though because it was rainy and wet, and then got back on the coach at 4:45, back in London at 6:15 and back home in my bedroom by 9. A long day but fun. It wasn't my favorite of the day trips but I'm still glad to have done it.
Next travel: ROME! FLORENCE! VENICE! NICE! MONTPELLIER! BARCELONA! MADRID! PARIS! BRUSSELS! AMSTERDAM!
(so excited)
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Technology
Well there has been a bit of an annoyance for the past couple of days. On Sunday afternoon, my computer froze. I forced shutdown and when I restarted, I was sent to a preboot execution environment, which could not detect the hard drive in which to boot up windows from. I kept trying to restart it, had more technology-savvy friends of mine look at it, and to no avail, I remained in the scary PXE full of technowords. The worst part of this was that my first assessed piece of coursework (yes, in Week 9 of a 10 week term) was due on Tuesday and it happened to be a powerpoint presentation that was saved on my laptop. After going to ITS on Monday morning (and being told that they just worked with the network, not personal computers...wankers) I resigned myself to sitting in the computer lab all of Monday after class redoing my presentation. Luckily I remembered most of it, it was just tragic having to redo it all. Tuesday came, presentation went fine, I didn't touch my computer. Yesterday I went into Brighton to go find a computer store that would actually fix something (how I longed for a Best Buy or something. Not some weird hole-in-the-wall sketch computer store) and when I get to the counter, tell the man what's wrong and turn it on....VOILA it works. Which was good because I didn't have to get anything fixed, but also annoying because I carried it about 1/2 mile from the train station. I have a feeling that this will happen again and it probably won't fix itself next time so I spent all of yesterday backing up files and pictures. It'll be annoying when it crashes but I won't miss anything. It just needs to work for 1.5 weeks more. Then it can have a month long break. Then it will need to work for a couple of months. And then once I'm back in the states it can crash as much as it wants.
Oh and when I finally got my computer back, the internet stopped working for about 6 hours. What is wrong with the English and technology??
Oxford on Saturday!
Oh and when I finally got my computer back, the internet stopped working for about 6 hours. What is wrong with the English and technology??
Oxford on Saturday!
Sunday, 2 March 2008
Pictures
Stonehenge begins with a visit to the druid-sheep! I looked for Rupert but, alas, he was not among them.
Stonehenge, take 1. The 360 degree tour started with the sun behind the rocks, so they're a little dark.
Whoa...this is different. Me in front of some monument? Never. 
Stonehenge, take 2. Brighter this time.
Hey look, over there, in the distance. It's Stonehenge!
Caitlin and I in front of 'Henge. More interesting. It was a pretty day at Stonehenge, but it was SO WINDY. It made picture taking kind of complicated. Especially if you have long hair.
Stonehenge makes you do wild and crazy things. 
Last picture of Stonehenge. I resisted putting up all of my pictures. Be thankful because I have a lot of them. You might think that it's hard to take a lot of pictures of the same circle of stones, but you would be WRONG in that assumption.
Testing out the warmth. Verdict? Indeed, the stone on the left is warmer.
On to Bath. Here we have the Bath Abbey.
Entrance to the Roman baths. It was crazy to see all this Roman architecture in the middle of England.
I really like this picture.
Statues looking down on the Great Bath.
Me and my camera looking down on the Great Bath.
I also really like this picture. A statue with the Abbey in the background. Check out the uber-blue sky that was in Bath that day.
Pediment that was above the entrance to Minerva's temple.
Guy.
Minerva's head that a bunch of workers found when digging like pipe lines or something. She's looking pretty good.
Original steps to the temple. You know, just some 2000 year old steps. Nothing interesting over here.
The parts of the main altar that they could find.
Hehe. Funny guy. I don't know what he was for or where he was in the temple, but I like to think of him saying "bleeeerrghh!"
Drain for the overflow from the springs. Very steamy.
Great Bath. Ground level. And I'm sure I'll get this question, so I'll just say, no I did not try the mineral water from the pump room. I don't need to drink gross water, thanks.
More Great Bath.
There was a conservation project currently underway so a corner of the bath was covered in this painted tarp. They may think that this shows the bath in all its glory, but it doesn't fool me.
The Sacred Springs. This is where the warm water actually bubbles up from the ground. The silly Romans couldn't figure out why thte water came up warm so they decided that it must be because of the gods. Hence the Sacred Springs.
Streets of Bath.
Cornish pasty! Deliciousness abounds.
Church peeking through the streets.
The Circus on the way to the Royal Crescent.
More random Roman architecture. Love it.
Side of the Royal Crescent.
Royal Crescent. So beautiful.
Blue skies!
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